Hiring in Canada ground to a halt last month even as the population continued to boom, pushing the country’s unemployment rate to its highest in years in a further sign the labor market continues to loosen, the Wall Street Journal reported. Employment nationally slipped by 2,200 in March from the month before, the first decline since a similar dip last July, while the unemployment rate was 0.3 percentage point higher at 6.1%, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
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Some Canadians are feeling a little more optimistic about their debt with the prospect of interest rate cuts on the horizon, said MNP Ltd, the Toronto Star reported. The insolvency firm’s Consumer Debt Index metric showed a significant rebound in the first quarter of 2024 after 12 months of low scores, according to its latest report. More than a quarter of Canadians say that they perceive their current debt situation as better than a year ago. Fewer Canadian households than last quarter, at 41 per cent, say they are concerned about their current level of debt.
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Canada’s labor market unexpectedly lost jobs and the unemployment rate jumped to the highest level in more than two years, signaling greater slack in the economy that will test the central bank’s patient stance on rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. The country shed 2,200 jobs in March and the unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 6.1%, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa. The figures missed expectations for a gain of 25,000 positions and a jobless rate of 5.9%, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
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Pride Group Holdings has sought creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), after lender Mitsubishi HC Capital America filed a claim this week seeking damages of approximately US$100 million, trucknews.com reported. Three lawsuits on behalf of the Mitsubishi HC Capital named Sulakhan ‘Sam’ Johal and Jasvir Johal, accuse them of taking out credit lines to build inventories for Pride Truck Sales and Tpine Leasing. It accused them of defaulting on payments they had personally guaranteed. The claims have not been proven in court.

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Steelworker union Local 1005 says the recent court filings by U.S. Steel is “bankruptcy fraud” and a path to abandoning Hamilton altogether — not only ditching the liability of its pensioners, but the cleanup costs of leaving the city, too, the CBC reported. Union head Rolf Gerstenberger made the statement at Local 1005’s headquarters at Barton and Kenilworth, questioning the company’s motives, repeatedly recalling a $58-million settlement U.S. Steel was has agreed to pay for price-fixing case in July for actions dating back a decade, and calling the process of bankruptcy protection theft.

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Canada’s economy made a solid start to the new year with growth in the first two months tracking well ahead of the Bank of Canada’s forecast, reinforcing expectations the central bank will once again stick to the sidelines at its coming policy meeting, the Wall Street Journal reported. The expansion in January was the strongest in a year, bolstered by a recovery with public sector strikes ending in Quebec and backed by increased activity across many segments of the economy.

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The Bank of Canada (BoC) on Tuesday said businesses urgently needed to boost investment to increase productivity, saying this would help insulate the economy against the threat of inflation, Reuters reported. “I'm saying that it's an emergency — it's time to break the glass," Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers told a business audience in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia.

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The Canadian province of Ontario on Tuesday forecast its budget deficit would more than triple in the upcoming fiscal year as economic growth stalls and it spends more on housing and roads, as well as measures to ease the cost of living, Reuters reported. Ontario, Canada's most populous province and home to Toronto, its largest city, said its deficit would widen to C$9.8 billion ($7.2 billion), or 0.9% of gross domestic product, in 2024-25, from an estimated C$3 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

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Canada's banking regulator is limiting the number of highly leveraged loans in banks' residential mortgage portfolios, which have ballooned alongside house prices to make Canadian borrowers among the most indebted in the world, the Globe and Mail reported on Friday, according to Reuters. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OFSI) has told lenders they will have to limit loans to borrowers with mortgages greater than 4.5 times their annual income, the newspaper reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
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