StatsCan report says pandemic job losses hit women harder than men

A new report by Statistics Canada says job losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been consistently more severe for women than for men.

The report says that from March 2020 to February 2021, women accounted for 53.7% of year-over-year employment losses.

The analysis points to a high proportion of women working at small firms in service industries, which it says have been hurt particularly hard during the pandemic.

The report says those differences are the main reasons for the disparity.

The economy lost 207,100 jobs in April as a spike in Covid-19 variant cases led to renewed public health restrictions. The services sector lost 195,400 jobs, while the goods producing sector lost 11,800.

With the April losses, the country was short about 503,100 jobs, or 2.6% below levels in February 2020 before the pandemic.

The Canadian Press

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