Canadians of South Asian origin, including Indo-Canadians, have been the demographically worst-hit community due to jobs losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. According to the country’s data agency Statistics Canada (StatCan), as against an overall unemployment rate of 10.9 per cent for July, the comparative figure for South Asians was at 17.8 per cent.
In fact, according to the labour force survey released by StatCan, minority groups have largely suffered more than the mainstream due to the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis. While South Asians have been the worst affected, the unemployment rate among those of Arab origin is 17.3 per cent and black Canadians at 16.8 per cent.
The agency also pointed out that South Asians and Chinese Canadians has experiences “large” Covid-19-related increases in unemployment. It noted, “South Asian (+9.1 percentage points) and Chinese (+8.4 percentage points) Canadians experienced relatively large increases in their unemployment rates from July 2019 to July 2020.”
And among South Asians, women were harder hit than men, with a 20.4 per cent unemployment rate as against 15.4 per cent.
Overall, the employment situation appears to be gradually improving in the country. Employment rose by 419,000 or 2.4 per cent in July which, when combined with gains from June of 953,000 and May of 290,000, indicates a degree of economic recovery with restrictions that hampered activity being gradually relaxed. However, the unemployment numbers were still 1.3 million behind the pre-February level. The unemployment rate overall was at 10.9 per cent below the record high of 13.7 per cent in May, but still not close to the pre-COVID-19 situation in February when the rate was at 5.6 per cent.
The gains in employment in July came largely due to part-time work, with that accounting for five-sixths of the additions, at 345,000 as compared to just 73,000 full-time positions.
“The relatively flat growth in full-time work in recent months is reflected in an increase in the proportion of part-time workers doing so involuntarily.,” StatCan analysed, adding that 29.7 per cent of those working part-time would have preferred full-time work but are unable to secure such openings.
