Brace yourself for ‘very dismal’ economic numbers, then a rush for restaurant reservations — podcast

Episode 88 of Down to Business podcast

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In January 2021, Canada shed over 200,000 jobs, mostly in Ontario and Quebec.

This week on Down to Business, Craig Alexander, chief economist at Deloitte Canada, offered his opinion on what lies ahead as we battle a second wave of the coronavirus and try to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.

Alexander said the severity of the second wave has been worse than many hoped, and pushed the unemployment level back up to the highest level in decades. The impact on small businesses, and people in the food and accommodation sector cannot be glossed over, he said.

But when the first lockdown ended, economic demand came back with a vengeance, and he’s expecting this to happen again — that very soon, it’ll be impossible to get a reservation at a restaurant, that we’ll all be waiting in long lines to see movies and the economy will come roaring back.