Canada lost almost 2,000,000 jobs in April, in addition to the one million job losses in March, according to official data published on Friday.
"Following a drop of over one million in March, employment fell by nearly two million in April, bringing the total employment decline since the beginning of the COVID-19 economic shutdown to over three million... The unemployment rate rose 5.2 percentage points in April to 13.0%", Statistics Canada said in the Labor Force Survey report for April 2020.
Addressing the crisis caused by the disease, Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos previously said that 7.5 million Canadians have so far received financial support from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit programme, which provides $2,000 a month for up to four months for those who've lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously ordered the allocation of $150 billion for benefits to support citizens during the lockdown, but according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, at least 1.4 million unemployed Canadians are not receiving the benefit, either because they haven't worked enough hours or earned sufficient income to qualify.
At the same time, in the neighbouring United States, the number of infected has reached over 1,200,000, resulting in harsh quarantine measures, which have also affected the economies of the region.