Archive September 5, 2025

In August, Canada’s economy lost thousands of jobs, and its unemployment rate, excluding the pandemic years, reached its highest level in almost 1.6 million.

Statistics Canada released data on Friday, showing a rise in its unemployment rate of 0.2 percentage points in August to 7.1 percent, the highest level since May 2016 if COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021 were excluded.

According to the report, the economy lost 65,500 jobs in August, primarily through part-time employment. The company claimed that this was also caused by some layoffs, with the layoff rate rising to 1 percent in August from the previous month’s figure of 0.9 percent.

Despite US tariffs on steel, aluminum, and cars, Canada’s economy has shown resilience in recent months, but Statistics Canada’s labor data revealed that import taxes are robbing up other industries.

Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 10% increase in net job growth and an increase in the unemployment rate from the previous month’s 6.9% increase.

The number of job losses in August was at their worst since January 2022.

After the employment data, which had been predicted for almost 72 percent, the odds of a rate cut on September 17 were almost 92 percent.

According to Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, “I think it just reinforces the fact that the economy is struggling with the uncertainty on the trade front.”

Due to extensive US dollar declines, the Canadian dollar was trading strongly after the data.

Since the pandemic, the employment rate, or the percentage of people working overall, dropped to 60.5 percent in August, which is the lowest level ever. The participation rate, a crucial indicator that measures how many people are economically active, whether they are seeking jobs or actively looking for them, was 65.1 percent, which is the lowest level since the pandemic.

Canadian businesses have been hampered by ongoing uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, which has had a negative impact on job growth and job growth, along with significant job losses in the steel and automotive industries.

The transportation and manufacturing sectors have been the main beneficiaries of this phenomenon. According to StatsCan, manufacturing lost 19 200 jobs in August while transportation and warehousing lost 22,700.

However, the loss of 26, 100 jobs in the field of professional, scientific, and technical services, which make up almost 80% of the economy’s workforce, was surpassed by this. Net 67,200 jobs were lost in the services sector.

The manufacturing industry’s decline was described as “a pretty significant hit.”

Along with treatments for cancer and cystic fibrosis, the World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its list of essential medicines to include medications for obesity and diabetes.

People in developing nations should also be able to purchase cheap generic versions of the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications, according to a statement released on Friday.

The WHO recommends that all functioning health systems have access to 523 medications for adults and 374 for children.

The new editions of WHO’s Health Systems, Access and Data list “mark a significant step toward expanding access to new medicines with proven clinical benefits and a high potential for global public health impact,” said Yukiko Nakatani, WHO’s assistant director-general for Health Systems, Access and Data.

To treat type 2 diabetes in combination with existing cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, or obesity, the expert committee added the active ingredients to the list from Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro.

The most recent editions of the WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines and Children’s Medicines are available today.

These lists, which are among the WHO’s most significant products, are used in over 150 nations to influence the supply of medicines, health care, and public sector procurement.

The medications, which were first developed to treat diabetes, have grown in popularity as weight-loss medications under various brand names. However, unlike in 2023, the WHO did not include them in the obesity treatment program.

According to the committee, this decision provided clear recommendations for which patients would gain the most from the treatments.

The WHO statement continued, “Medicare access is being hampered by the high prices of semaglutide and tirzepatide,” noting that encouraging generic drug makers to create the product would help when the drugs’ patents expire next year.

additions that are not already known

More than one billion people are affected by obesity, while more than 800 million people worldwide are currently living with diabetes.

The organization made plans earlier this year to recommend the use of obesity medications, which are separate from their inclusion on the essential medicines list.

More than 3.7 million people died from diseases linked to obesity or overweight in 2021, according to WHO data, more than 3.7 million of those deaths coming from malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV alone.

Additionally included on the list are Trikafta or Kaftrio, Trikafta or Trikafta, both from Vertex Pharmaceuticals. For years, activists have criticized its high price and limited accessibility.

Merck’s key-selling cancer immunotherapy drug, Keytruda, is also included in WHO’s list for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancers that have spread, or metastasizes, as well as cervical cancers, colorectal cancers, and non-small cell lung cancers that have metastasized or spread. Additionally, the organization suggested strategies to improve drug access.