My Business News

Statistics Canada on Monday released two reports suggesting that the economic slowdown is easing.

Both indicated aspects of the economy got worse, but both also showed the rate of decline is slowing.

More people received regular Employment Insurance benefits in April, but the 2.7 per cent increase — up 18,600 to 697,000 — was the smallest in six months, Statistics Canada said.

A second statistic showed household net worth dropped $72 billion in the first quarter, but that was “a much slower rate of decline” than in the last two quarters of 2008, when losses totalled $438 billion, the agency said.

EI up most in West

The rate of increase in EI recipients increased fastest in Alberta and Saskatchewan — over 16 and 12 per cent, respectively — but the overall unemployment rate in the two provinces and British Columbia remained among the lowest in the country.

Alberta has 48,310 and Saskatchewan 13,200 people receiving EI.

Ontario reported a 4.4 per cent rise in April to 230,000, and is up 73 per cent from April 2008.

Stock market, real estate behind wealth drop

The stock market’s continued fall in the first quarter and declining real estate values caused the drop in wealth, Statistics Canada said.

“On a per capita basis, national net worth has fallen from $180,000 in the fourth quarter of 2008 to $178,800 in the first quarter of 2009,” the agency said.

However, the 1.3 per cent fall was only half the 2.6 per cent decline in the United States.

Both real estate and stock markets have risen since the end of the first quarter, March 31.