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Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem warned this week that an uneven recession – one where certain sectors and groups recover significantly slower than others, such as the current one

triggered by the COVID pandemic – may last longer and be more damaging than other types of recessions.

Speaking in Toronto Thursday, Canada’s top central banker said the current recession sees a higher risk for women and young people to be permanently laid off, creating the uneven recession

scenario.

Statistics show that Canada has regained close to two million jobs since the pandemic started. Women, youth, Indigenous people, however, have not seen their jobs return at the same brisk

pace as the overall trend, data indicated. 

Given that those who are permanently laid off tend to take twice as long to find new jobs than those who are temporarily laid off, Macklem said this current recession poses significant

long-term risk to youth employment in Canada, as many candidates hit major barriers in starting their careers.

"If these workers become discouraged and leave the labour force or lose valuable skills over time, their reduced economic participation will lower our potential growth, limiting living

standards for everyone," Mecklem said, adding the central bank is trying to do everything it can to help mitigate the situation.

These moves include bond-buying from banks in a bid to add stability to the overall financial sector, purchasing up to $5 billion a week in assets in a continuing effort to boost market

outlooks.

The latest data shows that Canada currently has more than one million fewer paid workers than it had in February. That is in spite of a 246,000 boost to new jobs numbers in August.