Employment gains and losses by sector in April. (Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (3701), table 14-10-0355-01.)
Canada’s construction sector dropped slightly in April, shedding 1,800 jobs, perhaps reflecting the national employment picture, which was little changed for the month as well, reports Statistics Canada in its most recent Labour Force Survey. Across all sectors, there were 7,400 more people working in Canada in April, although the employment rate slid by a tenth of a per cent to 60.8 per cent and the unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points, to 6.9 per cent.
By volume, Ontario saw the biggest drop in general employment as it reported 35,000 fewer workers than March, although the losses were offset by the 18,000 workers added in Quebec, 15,000 in Alberta, 5,700 in Manitoba and 3,800 in Newfoundland and Labrador.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, Canada’s construction sector employed 1,640,600 workers in April, down 0.1 per cent from March, but up 1.6 per cent from April of 2024.
Following a decline of 0.2 percentage points in March, Canada’s employment rate across all sectors, which measures the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are employed, fell a further 0.1 percentage points in April. This brought the employment rate to 60.8 per cent, matching the recent low recorded in October of 2024. The employment rate trended down for most of 2023 and 2024, with population growth outpacing employment gains, but it rebounded with three consecutive months of gains between last November and January.
Canada’s unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.9 per cent in April, following an increase of 0.1 percentage points in March. With these increases, the unemployment rate has returned to its level of November of 2024, which was the highest since January 2017, excluding the figures seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
People who were unemployed continued to face more difficulties finding work in April than a year earlier. Among those who were unemployed in March, 61 per cent remained unemployed in April, higher than the corresponding proportion for the same months in 2024, which reported at 57.3 per cent.