Employment fell by 29,000 (-1.0%) in wholesale and retail trade in March, partly offsetting an increase of 51,000 in February. On a year-over-year basis, the number of people working in wholesale and retail trade was little changed in March, reported Statistics Canada on Friday.
The federal agency said overall employment in the country fell by 33,000 (-0.2%) in March and the employment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 60.9%. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 6.7%.
Employment decreased by 33,000 (-0.2%) in March, the first decrease since January 2022. The decline in March followed little change in February and three consecutive months of growth in November, December and January totalling 211,000 (+1.0%).
“The employment decline in March was driven by a drop in full-time work (-62,000; -0.4%). Full-time employment had followed a strong upward trend in the second half of 2024 and had held steady in January and February 2025,” said Statistics Canada.
“The employment rate—the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are employed—fell 0.2 percentage points to 60.9% in March. This partially offset an increase of 0.3 percentage points that had been observed from October 2024 to January 2025.”
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. On a year-over-year basis, the number of employees in the private sector was up by 175,000 (+1.3%), said the report.
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. Self-employment was also little changed in March and was up 81,000 (+3.0%) on a year-over-year basis, added the report.
StatsCan said the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 6.7% in March, the first increase since November 2024. The unemployment rate had trended up from 5.0% in March 2023 to a recent high of 6.9% in November 2024, before falling by 0.3 percentage points from November 2024 to January 2025, in the context of robust employment growth at the end of 2024 and in early 2025.
“Since March 2024, the unemployment rate has remained above its pre-COVID-19 pandemic average of 6.0% (from 2017 to 2019).”
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