Windsor has highest jobless rate in Canada for fourth month straight
Canada lost almost two million jobs during the month of April
Windsor's unemployment rate soared even higher in April, according to Statistics Canada numbers released Friday.
The city's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 10.5 per cent in March to 12.9 per cent in April.
Windsor is the Canadian city with the highest jobless rate for the fourth month in a row, or all of 2020.
The snapshot of the labour force comes as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to throw the country into economic uncertainty.
Jobless numbers for the city were on a decline before the pandemic arose.
Statistics Canada's January 2020 employment data set Windsor's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 8.3 per cent — the highest jobless rate out of any municipality in Canada at that time as well.
Canada lost almost two million jobs during the month of April, a record high, as the impact of COVID-19 on the economy made itself known.
The Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey data brings the total number of jobs lost during the crisis to more than three million.
The closure of non-essential services to slow the spread of COVID-19 has devastated the economy and forced businesses to shutter temporarily.
Statistics Canada says the unemployment rate soared to 13 per cent as the full force of the pandemic hit, compared with 7.8 per cent in March.
Economists on average had expected the loss of four million jobs and an unemployment rate of 18 per cent, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.