Canada lost 33,000 jobs overall in March due to a steep drop in the number of full-time jobs. The decline marks the weakest labour market since the COVID pandemic.
Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey found that U.S. tariff threats and retaliatory levies played a role in the plunging job market.
However, it had the inverse effect south of the border as the U.S. saw an increase in employment last month.
“Private sector employment fell by 48,000 (-0.3%) in March, following little change in February and a cumulative increase of 97,000 (+0.7%) from November 2024 to January 2025,” reads the survey.
“Public sector employment was little changed for a third consecutive month in March and was up 92,000 (+2.1%) compared with a year earlier.”
Little change was also seen regarding self-employment in March.
Employment declined most among men aged 55 years and older, which fell by 0.9 per cent, while there was little change for other major demographic groups.
“Employment fell by 29,000 (-1.0%) in wholesale and retail trade in March, partly offsetting an increase of 51,000 in February,” reads the report. “Following five months of little change, employment decreased by 20,000 (-2.4%) in information, culture and recreation in March.”
Employment in agriculture also fell by 3.9 per cent
“Other services” such as personal and repair services saw a 1.5 per cent gain and there was also a gain in utilities jobs by 2.8 per cent.
Canada’s overall jobless rate increased by 0.1, bringing it to 6.7 per cent, resulting in the first job loss over the past eight months and the largest drop since January 2022.
Provincially, Ontario suffered the most job losses in March, losing 28,000 jobs and marking its lowest employment rate since December 2023, followed by Alberta with 15,000 jobs.
Saskatchewan added 6,600 jobs last month and Quebec remained unchanged.
“Among the 1.5 million people who were unemployed in March, the largest share (44.1%) had lost their job due to a lay-off within the previous 12 months (down from 47.0% in March 2024) (not seasonally adjusted),” it said.
“Of these unemployed people, 18.4% last worked in construction, while 12.4% last worked in wholesale or retail trade. The proportion of the unemployed who last worked in manufacturing (9.3%) was little changed on a year-over-year basis.”