Link: http://www2.canada.com/topics/technology/news/gizmos/roll+rises+cent+december/1323501/story.html?id=1323501
Summary
Because of the economic downturn, Statistics Canada said that the number of Canadians receiving regular employment-insurance benefits rose up to 16.2% in December from a year earlier. In December 2008, EI benefits rose to 538, 180 from December 2007 of 463, 000, and analysts are expecting more depressing employment news coming in the early 2009. Canada lost 34, 400 jobs in December, followed by a number of 129, 000 in January and all these jobs are mostly full time positions. The unemployment rate pushed to 7.2% since December. All provinces and territories in Canada are seeing an increase in EI beneficiaries, especially B.C. at 33.2%, Alberta at 30.3%, and Ontario at 29.6%. Statistics Canada is planning to report fourth-quarter GDP figures next week.
Connection
The connection between chapter five and this article is Statistics Canada providing us information on unemployment rate and employment-insurance benefits by using the labour-force survey. Regular EI benefits is defined as a type of benefit that is available to people who lose their job through no fault of their own. In this case, the unemployment rate is increasing due to people getting laid off because of the economic depression. On page 157 in the Economics textbook, a graph showing the unemployment rates of Canada in percentage through 1966-2002 is presented. It reveals that in the years 2000-2002, the percentage is slowly increasing and as expected by analysts, it is.
Reflection
Judging from the graph on page 157 provided by Statistics Canada, I, too, believe that the unemployment rate of Canada would increase in the next year or too. It's very frustrating how I see more people on the street with signs in the middle of the road saying "Got laid off, need money". Because of this problem, it causes further problems such as more homeless people on the streets. I even have two members of my family experiencing unemployment even though they have been working in the company for more than 10 years. However, with the 2010 event coming up, job opportunities may increase because of this worldly-wide attraction.
