Canada's labour market showed signs last month of finally shaking off the shock COVID-19 delivered two years ago, with the share of workers with a job and the unemployment rate besting levels seen just prior to the pandemic.

The Ontario Construction Secretariat’s annual contractor survey finds that 82 percent of those contractors surveyed have a positive outlook on the province’s construction industry for 2022.

After three straight quarters of profits, the engineering firm swung to a loss of almost $53 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31, surprising analysts, who called the financial results "weak" and "messy."

Statistics Canada said Tuesday the economy grew 4.6 per cent last year, compared with a decline of 5.2 per cent in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ontario's financial watchdog says that overall, the province's labour market has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, but the recovery has been uneven across sectors and regions.