The announcement by Statistics Canada that another 129,000 workers joined the ranks of the unemployed in the month of January, gives further proof that the Harper Government’s budget will not do enough to lift the country out of the current recession, the worst since the Great Depression.

“The 129,000 jobs lost, the majority of which were good full-time positions, were three times greater than predicted,” says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley.

“That figure suggests Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have either been misleading Canadians about how bad the economic crisis really is, or it’s another indication of how incompetent the Conservatives are at managing this economy.”

In a 2007 Statistics Canada survey, just 54 per cent of the jobless were eligible for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits and only 42 per cent received them. Last month’s federal budget did nothing to increase access to EI benefits or provide economic stimulus through increasing benefit levels.

“A nation out of work can’t work as a nation,” says President Hanley. “Tax cuts won’t help unemployed workers who are scraping by to pay their mortgage or feed their families. The government needs to provide greater access to EI funds to help the unemployed, and put more money into infrastructure spending to provide the economic stimulus necessary to put the victims of this recession, the unemployed, back to work.”