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Canada’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent in March as more than 300,000 jobs were added to the Canadian economy. More jobs were being created at the same time that COVID-19 cases were soaring and many provinces, particularly Ontario and Quebec, were introducing more widespread lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The drop in the unemployment rate is a good indicator that the economy is trying to reawaken in some sectors that have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. A few weeks ago, Algonquin College’s Pembroke Campus partnered with the Lanark-Renfrew Labour Market Working Group, the County of Renfrew, City of Pembroke and Upper Ottawa Valley Chamber of Commerce to hold four labour market forums that were focused on Renfrew County’s post-pandemic economic recovery.