Manufacturing loses most jobs in 15 yearsCanadian manufacturers struggled under the weight of a strong currency and foreign competition in January, cutting 41,600 jobs in January. It was the sharpest decline since February, 1991, according to Statistics Canada. Of those January cuts, 33,000 occurred in Ontario, the country's manufacturing heartland. Those reductions come on top of more than 100,000 job cuts last year, with two thirds of those in Ontario. The Canadian Labour Congress called the manufacturing decline a crisis. Canadian working families and their communities are being crushed by a major job market crisis, said Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, who's calling for a serious and co-ordinated response by all levels of government working with labour and employers. Since the end of 2002, employment in manufacturing has dropped by 8.2 per cent because of a strong Canadian dollar and heated competition from abroad. January's decline was concentrated in furniture and related products as well as in motor vehicles and parts, Statscan said. The bleeding has continued into February. Tire-making giant Michelin SA on Feb. 2 announced it will close a factory in Kitchener and eliminate 1,100 jobs. The Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters predicts that another 100,000 jobs in manufacturing will be lost again this year, mainly in Ontario, as a strong Canadian dollar takes its toll. Overall, the Canadian economy added 26,300 jobs in January, slightly more than expected, as gains in the natural resources sector outweighed another steep decline in manufacturing. The jobless rate, meantime, unexpectedly crept up to 6.6 per cent from 6.5 per cent as more people entered the work force, Statscan said. Employment in natural resources jumped by 12,300 in January, with the largest increases occurring in Alberta and British Columbia. Employment in this sector has soared 19.2 per cent since the end of 2002, fuelled by strength in Alberta's oil and gas sector. Overall, the economy has added 269,000 positions over the past year, a gain of 1.7 per cent, slightly less than the 2-per-cent rate of employment growth in the U.S. over the same period. Wages continued to climb. In January, the average hourly wage rate was 3.4 per cent higher than a year ago, well ahead of the 2.2-per-cent increase in consumer price inflation. Alberta continued to lead the nation with an increase of 7.4 per cent in the average hourly wage rate compared to 12 months ago, Statscan said. Economists polled by Bloomberg News had expected 25,000 job gains for the month and an unchanged rate of 6.5 per cent. |
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