Unemployment in Canada hits six-month high with 18,000 jobs shed: StatsCan
· Toronto Sun
OTTAWA — Canada’s unemployment rate reached a six-month high as 18,000 jobs were shed last month, according to numbers released Friday by Statistics Canada.
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In StatsCan’s monthly Labour Force Survey for April, Canada’s unemployment rate grew by 0.2%, peaking at 6.9% — that’s the highest number seen since September 2025, when unemployment reached 7.1%.
The unemployment rate increased 0.4% every month since the beginning of the year, the report said, and largely remained unchanged on a year-over-year basis.
Those metrics varied little across age groups, the report stated — but showed big jumps in the unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24, increasing 0.5% to 14.3%, and men between 25 and 54, which increased 0.3% to 6.1%.
“The youth unemployment rate was virtually unchanged on a year-over-year basis but remained markedly above the pre-pandemic average of 10.8%,” the report read.
Ontario saw biggest job increases
Ontario saw Canada’s biggest increases in employment, gaining 42,000 jobs (an increase of 0.5%), partially offsetting declines seen at the beginning of the year.
Some provinces saw significant drops in employment — Quebec lost 43,000 jobs last month, a 0.9% drop, while Newfoundland and Labrador lost 5,200 jobs (a 2.1% drop).
The job losses in Quebec, the report said, is that province’s biggest significant decline in the past three months.
That was largely concentrated within the greater Montreal area, which at 7.7% in April marked the highest non-pandemic-related unemployment rate in nearly a decade.
Saskatchewan, likewise, shed 4,000 jobs (0.6%), while New Brunswick saw 2,700 jobs lost — a 0.7% drop.
Monthly lay-off rates, the report said, remained steady at 0.6%.
Canada lost 18,000 jobs in April
Employment numbers saw little changes in the rest of Canada, according to StatsCan — with the country losing 18,000 jobs last month, a 0.1% drop compared to the previous month.
“This marked the second consecutive month of little variation following the monthly decline of 84,000 (-0.4%) in February,” the report read.
“On a year-over-year basis, employment in April was up by 67,000 (+0.3%), but recorded a net decline of 112,000 (-0.5%) over the first four months of 2026.”
Canada’s employment rate, a measure of Canadians over the age of 15 who are currently working, fell 0.1% last month to 60.5% — a low not seen since August 2025, and down 0.3% year-over-year.
While part-time employment increased by 0.8% last month, full-time employment fell 0.3%.
“The proportion of unemployed people who had been continuously searching for work for 27 weeks or more — considered long-term unemployment — was 22.5% in April,” the report read.
“This proportion was little changed both in the month and compared with 12 months earlier.”
Even still, the report says, those numbers don’t achieve the long-term unemployment numbers seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, which reached an average of 17.1%.