Canada’s unemployment rate hit a near-eight-year high last month, increasing to 6.8% in November despite the economy adding a net 50,500 jobs.
According to Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate increased 0.3 percentage points to 6.8% last month, the highest rate since January 2017, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic years.
The unemployment rate has been steadily trending upward since April 2023, increasing 1.7% over that period.
“The number of unemployed people—those looking for work or on temporary layoff—increased by 87,000 (+6.1%) in November, bringing the total number of unemployed persons to 1.5 million. On a year-over-year basis, the number of unemployed people was up by 276,000 (+22.2%),” reads the report.
“The unemployed population includes people who lost or left their previous job, as well as people who are new entrants to the labour force.”
Nearly half of unemployed people (46.3%) had not worked in the past twelve months or had never worked, up from 39.5% from last November.
The cohort of “long-term unemployed people” also increased, with 21.7% of unemployed people having been continuously unemployed for 27 weeks or more in November, up 5.9% from twelve months ago.
Employment rose among men aged 25 to 54 years old by 0.6% last month but fell among women aged 55 to 64 years old by 1.3%.
“Employment rose in the month in wholesale and retail trade (1.3%), construction (1.2%), professional, scientific and technical services (0.9%), educational services (1.0%), and accommodation and food services (1.3%),” reads the report.
However, “tt declined in manufacturing (1.6%), transportation and warehousing ( -1.7%) and natural resources (1.8%).”
Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island all saw a slight uptick in employment last month, while the other provinces saw little change.
Total hours worked dropped by 0.2% in November but were up 1.9% compared with November 2023.
Average hourly wages among employees jumped up by 4.1% on a year-over-year basis last month, following growth of 4.9% in October.
Among Canada’s 20 largest census metropolitan areas, Windsor saw the highest unemployment rate at 8.7% last month.
It was followed by Edmonton at 8.3%, Toronto at 8.1% and Calgary at 7.9%.
Unemployment rates were lowest in Victoria and Québec at 3.7% and 4.5%, respectively.
“On a year-over-year basis, the unemployment rate rose in most of the 20 largest CMAs, led by Calgary (+2.0 percentage points), Edmonton (+1.9 percentage points) and Québec (+1.8 percentage points),” reads the report.