Canada's labour market cooled sharply in September. Statistics Canada reported Friday that employment fell by 68,000 jobs, or 0.3 per cent, and the unemployment rate edged up a tenth of a point to 6.5 per cent — back where it started the year.
The result was far weaker than expected: economists had forecast a small gain of about 9,200 jobs. It followed a loss of 42,000 positions in August, and together the two months wiped out more than half of the 181,000 jobs added from April through July. Losses split almost evenly between full-time and part-time work and were concentrated in the public sector, which shed 70,000 employees for its fourth straight monthly decline.
Young Canadians took the hardest hit, with employment among 15- to 24-year-olds down 48,000, while women aged 25 to 54 lost 28,000 jobs. By industry, educational services lost 35,000 positions, health care and social assistance lost 23,000, and manufacturing fell 13,000 — a drop one bank economist linked in part to the weight of U.S. tariffs. Average hourly wages rose 2.3 per cent year over year to $37.64, and the participation rate slipped to 64.8 per cent, the lowest outside the pandemic since 1997, a decline StatCan attributes largely to an aging population.
The provincial map was uneven. Quebec lost 49,000 jobs, Ontario and British Columbia each lost 20,000, and Alberta was the standout, adding 23,000 positions as its unemployment rate eased to 6.4 per cent. The report is the Bank of Canada's final look at the job market before its Oct. 28 interest-rate decision, and forecasters read the weak number as a reason for the central bank to hold its rate at 2.25 per cent.
