Covid and Unemployment in Canada – Changes to EI system coming

Government officials admit there will still need to be policy changes to the EI system to help some self-employed workers qualify, and capture EI-eligible workers who, due to the pandemic, haven’t been able to work the necessary qualifying hours.

“It’s not easy. We’re in challenging times,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau told reporters. “We’re going to make sure we support people to get through these challenging times because we know that’s the right thing to do.”

For this calendar year, the government expects the unemployment rate to hit 9.8 per cent, dropping to 7.8 per cent next year based on forecasts by 13 private-sector economists.

Although that’s an improvement from the record-high unemployment rate of 13.7 per cent in May for a labour force of just over 19 million, it is still much worse than than the record low of 5.5 per cent pre-pandemic.

The Liberals will likely have to lay out a training program for workers in the fall even if the economy improves, said Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress.

“Not all workers are going to go back to their jobs,” he said in an interview. “Some of those jobs may not be there for workers at the end of the day.″

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story @ Canada’s Deficit Is 1,000% Higher Than Projected At Start Of 2020 | HuffPost Canada