Canada is not technically in a recession – not yet anyway. But there is no shortage of economists who say we are on the verge of one.
One of the reasons we have not yet entered the negative territory of a recession is government hiring. The economics unit at ScotiaBank has just broken down the number of workers the federal government alone hired and came away in disbelief of the way governments in general have allowed payrolls to become, in their words, bloated.
They note that the latest GDP numbers which showed us verging on – but not tipping into – recession is output gains from the public sector which is fueled by more government employees.
They point to the hiring of public sector employees during Justin Trudeau’s time as Prime Minister is tallied at 800,000 – about eight times the number during Jean Chretien’s time. And when looking at just federal civil servants: almost 300,000 which is about double what both his father and Stephen Harper hired and a far cry from Jean Chretien who reduced the head count.
