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Some 3 million jobs were lost following lockdowns introduced across Canada in March to contain the spread of the coronavirus.��

However, more people are now back to work.��

The results of the����released on Friday show that the recent easing of public health restrictions has meant more employment for Canadians in general and for immigrants in particular.��

��In August, employment rose 1.4% for Canadians, rising to within 5.7% of pre-COVID levels.�� Meanwhile,��employment for landed immigrants was up 1.6% while employment for recent immigrants was up 2.2%, an increase driven mainly by the reduction in the population of recent immigrants due to��lower newcomer arrivals��during the pandemic.����

The vast majority of the employment gains were in full-time positions.��

Employment growth was concentrated in the services sector (+1.5%) as opposed to the goods producing sector.����

The services sector growth was concentrated in educational services, accommodation and food services, and the “other services” industry which includes hard-hit hair and beauty salons.����

“In the goods producing sector, gains in manufacturing were partially offset by declines in natural resources.”��������

While these gains are very good news for all Canadians, some disparities exist in the employment picture.����

The labor force participation rate for men is now within 0.2% of pre-covid��levels while for women it is 1.3% below pre-covid��levels – an indication that many women are engaged in non-employment related��activities��such as child-care.����

Unemployment rates remain higher for visible minorities as compared to people who are not members of a visible minority group.�� The national unemployment rate of 11.1% (not seasonally adjusted) compared to 17.9% for Arab, 17.6% for Black, and 16.6% for Southeast Asian populations.��

Low-wage workers and youth have employment levels only 86.0% of February levels while other employees have nearly returned to pre-COVID levels (99.1% of February employment levels).��This is entirely driven by the concentration of low-wage employment in hard-hit services-producing industries.��

As such, there remains plenty of room for improvement. Canada still needs to recover 1.1 million jobs that have been lost since the start of the pandemic.��

This new report, however, shows that Canada’s economic recovery is moving in the right direction. Nearly 1.9 million jobs have been recovered��in recent months. In addition to the��246,000��jobs created��in August,��another��419,000��were recovered��in July, and 1.2 million��were recovered��in May and June.����

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