Substantial job losses expected in early 2009

Forecasters at Global Insight predict Canada will lose 100,000 jobs during the first quarter of 2009, according to a Nov. 19 report from the Canadian Press. Job losses will be most severe in the auto sector, forestry and in construction. Dale Orr, managing director for Global Insight, said in the article that the unemployment rate will rise from its current 6.2 percent to 7.2 percent by the end of 2009.

Orr added that the Canadian economy retreated an estimated 1.4 percent on an annualized basis during October to December, 2008, and it will shrink another 1.2 percent during the first quarter of 2009. “That’s quite a stretch of miserable growth,” Orr said in the article.