Canadian employment and output contracted at the fastest rate of any post-war recession during the recent 2008 to 2010 recession, according to a new study released Thursday morning by Statistics Canada.
“The most striking feature of the 2008-2009 recession was the speed and severity of the contraction in exports,” the study states, noting export earnings plunged 30% in less than six months and ultimately fell nearly 40% before export growth resumed.
The study, which compares the 2008 to 2010 recession and recovery with previous cycles, notes the recessions that started in 1981 and 1990 saw drops of about 10% in exports.
The study attributes the severity of the export drop during the most recent recession to the impacts of the global financial crisis, and comments it reflected “the unprecedented decline in global trade flows and the resulting quick and severe drop in corporate incomes and spending.”
However the study says that by most conventional measures – such as gross domestic product, employment or labour hours worked – the 2008 to 2009 recession was less severe than those in 1981 to 1982.
The study noted in the most recent recession, the Canadian economy began to stabilize in mid-2009 in response to policy measures in Canada and beyond.
“As a result, the decline in output in Canada, although significant, was less pronounced than in other major industrialized countries, and the subsequent recovery quicker and more complete, with Canada the only G7 nation where real output, private domestic demand, and employment have returned to pre-recession levels,” the study commented.