By Cheryl Jahn

Jobless Numbers

Jobless numbers “good news”

Jun 5, 2020 | 1:15 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – “Ah Crap! What am I going to do? out of a job.”

That was Faith Levy’s first reaction back in mid-March, after hearing the order from the Provincial Health Office which meant her workplace, the BX Pub, would have to close its doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has since returned to work after three months off. She is one of the hundreds of thousands who are returning to the workforce in Canada.

Nationally, the unemployment rate in May was 13.7%, up from 11.7% in April. But the numbers also reflect the return of 290,000 workers to the workforce. In B.C., the number in May was 13.4%, up from 11.5% in April. Locally, Prince George saw a more modest jump, from 10.1% in April to 11.8% last month. Oddly enough, that’s good news.

“Because most of the economists were saying ‘We’re going to 15 percent unemployment. We’re going to lose 500,000 jobs.’ And, now, instead, there are jobs that were gained nationally,” says Stan Mitchell with KPMG.

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At the start of the pandemic, the federal government created the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. The first recipients of the $500-a-week payment will max out their 16 weeks of benefits in early July. Levy says she knows of several others who have opted to stay with the benefit program rather than return to work.

“There’s a lot of people who want to stay on [CERB]. I would have loved to have the summer off. Who wouldn’t? But I know they’re only hiring some many people back and, then, when EI runs out, what do you do? There’s no job for you to come back to. They don’t need you. You’re not fired, they just don’t have any positions for you.”

Stan Mitchell says these numbers will be “an asterisk” in history when it comes to the economy.