Indigenous workers have been hit harder by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new study from Statistics Canada.
Using data from StatsCan’s labour force surveys, the study finds that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous workers suffered similar job losses with the onset of the pandemic, but that the recovery has been essentially non-existent for Indigenous workers.
Between February and May, the unemployment rate for Indigenous people jumped by 6.6 percentage points to 16.6%. For non-Indigenous workers, the rate jumped by 6.2 percentage points, to 11.7%.
As the economy gradually reopened, StatsCan found that the unemployment rate for non-Indigenous people declined to 11.2% by August. However, for Indigenous workers, it actually edged up to 16.8% over the same period.
The study also noted that labour market conditions have been particularly tough on Indigenous women and youth.
For Indigenous women, by August, employment levels were at 88.4% of the pre-pandemic level, compared with 96.5% for Indigenous men.
For Indigenous youth, the summertime unemployment rate was 26.0%, which was up by 11.3 percentage points compared with the same period in 2019, the report said.