The jump to 15% minimum suggested tips is probably playing a role, but even without that the restaurant industry is struggling with the pandemic hangover and a marginal consumer who cannot afford to eat out.

Three in four Canadians are eating out less, often because of the high cost of living, a Restaurants Canada report published Monday found. That share is even higher among those aged 18 to 34 at 81 per cent.

Restaurants Canada chief executive Kelly Higginson said it’s an “alarming” trend for the foodservice industry.

Guess who’s buying all those new homes in Canada? Apparently, almost no one. The central question that the article fails to ask is this: whose balance sheets are taking the hit? In any case, retirees are never going to take up all the slack that investors are leaving behind.

There were just over 300 new homes sold across the entire Toronto region in April. A population of about 6.4 million people was mainly too scared to pull the trigger.

It was one of the worst months ever for sales, according to the Building Industry and Land Development Association. The market hasn’t improved much since.

“It’s a crazy market out there with condos,” she said, fully aware of the drop in sales and prices. June sales were just 510 units, 82 per cent below the 10-year average for the month, BILD said.

Learn to code, they said. But just don’t expect a job in Canada.

Canada’s tech job market has gone from boom to bust in a matter of years, a new study says.

The research released Tuesday by job postings site Indeed says August openings in the sector posted on its platform were down 19 per cent from their early 2020 levels.

Whatever happens to the housing industry in this country, the damage will invariably be papered over by financial institutions marking assets to book value instead of market value. That’s what they’ve been doing since 2008 and most everyone seems okay with it. What could possibly go wrong?

“I think the last time I saw this was in 2008-2009 during the financial crisis,” she said. “And in 2020 during COVID-19.”

Calderwood has built a career specializing in selling luxury real estate from condos to waterfront properties, and she has recently noticed both a decline in sales and prices, as well as a rise in foreclosures.

“It really picked up last year, but this year, too,” she said. “A lot of foreclosures and then you just see the price dropping. Sometimes people are losing a couple of million.”

In an economy overloaded with exponentially growing debt, vendors actually have very little pricing power. If they try to raise prices the marginal consumer will just say no. What they can do, however, is lower their asking price, and that’s exactly what’s happening. It’s either that or fold the tent.

IKEA announced on Tuesday it’s cutting its restaurant prices in half for adults and children eat free from Monday to Friday.

Now that the election is over the mainstream media water carriers can safely post bad news.

The largest drop was seen in the manufacturing sector, with a net loss of 31,000 jobs, a 1.6 per cent decline from March. Regionally, the deepest manufacturing impact was in Ontario, with 33,000 fewer jobs.

“Overall, we are seeing a job market that was weak heading into the trade war, now looking like it could soon buckle.”

The marginal home buyer can’t muster much of a bid these days, and who could blame him? When is this going to start hitting the balance sheets of lenders?

Vancouver home sales activity fell again in May as buyers continued to sit on the sidelines, the city’s real estate board said Tuesday.

Residential sales in the region totalled 2,228 last month, an 18.5 per cent drop from the same month a year earlier, Greater Vancouver Realtors said. Sales levels are 30.5 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average.