Lockdowns and capacity limits at businesses due to the highly infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19 played a role in the first increase in Canada’s unemployment rate since the third wave of the pandemic last April.
Statistics Canada says the national jobless rate jumped by half-a-percent to 6.5 percent in January after the economy lost 200,000 jobs, mostly part-time positions.
The federal agency says Ontario and Quebec were impacted the most with accommodations, food services and retail being the hardest hit sectors.
In New Brunswick, 3,100 jobs were lost last month and the provincial unemployment rate was little changed at 8.5 percent.
Capacity limits at businesses starting in late December and a lockdown by mid-January were cited as factors.
In Moncton, the jobless figure held fairly steady at 6.4 percent but the rate in Saint John fell by half-a-percent to 7.7 percent.
