Canada’s unemployment rate rose in June as 60K jobs added
Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 5.4 per cent in June even as the country’s employers kept hiring, according to Statistics Canada.
The agency said Friday Canada added 60,000 jobs amid a gain of 110,000 full-time positions last month. That marked the largest increase in employment since January.
But the unemployment rate rose from 5.2 per cent in May as more people were looking for work, StatCan said. Canada has seen surging population growth in recent months, including hitting the 40-million-population mark in June.
Job gains were concentrated in wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, health care and social assistance and transportation and warehousing. Meanwhile, year-over-year wage growth slowed significantly last month, falling to 4.2 per cent compared with 5.1 per cent in May. Wage growth had been above the five per cent mark for much of 2023.
Canada’s unemployment rate now stands at its highest level since February 2022.
A separate jobs data release south of the border on Friday showed the unemployment rate in the United States ticked down to 3.6 per cent in June from 3.7 per cent the previous month. America’s employers pulled back on hiring but still delivered another month of solid gains last month, adding 209,000 jobs in a sign that the economy’s resilience is confounding the Federal Reserve’s drive to slow growth and inflation.
The June jobs report is the last major economic data release before the Bank of Canada announces its interest rate decision on Wednesday.
The Bank of Canada is hoping to see more softening in the labour market as it stays focused on bringing inflation down.
TD Bank senior economist Leslie Preston said in a note Friday that despite strength in the June headline jobs number, the
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