Employment fell by 200,000 (-1.0%) in January and the unemployment rate rose 0.5 percentage points to 6.5%. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 4.8% on a year-over-year basis in December 2021, up from 4.7% in November. In an effort to combat the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, many jurisdictions had implemented stricter public health measures during the fourth quarter of 2021 and continuing through the first quarter of 2022. The combination of inflationary pressures, labour challenges, public health measures and supply chain issues have impacted businesses in a variety of different ways.
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