Canada’s labour market added 60,000 jobs in September, pushing the national employment rate up by 0.1 percentage points to 60.6 per cent, according to new data released by Statistics Canada.
The increase comes after two months of declines totalling 106,000 jobs, and leaves overall employment just 22,000 higher than in January, a net change of 0.1 per cent.
The unemployment rate remained steady at 7.1 per cent in September.
Gains were concentrated among core-aged workers aged 25 to 54, where employment rose by 76,000 (+1.2 per cent) for women and 33,000 (+0.5 per cent) for men. Statistics Canada noted, “This was associated with a rebound in the employment rate of core-aged women (+0.9 percentage points to 80.4%) and core-aged men (+0.3 percentage points to 86.1%).”
Employment fell among people aged 55 and older by 44,000 (-1.0 per cent), with their employment rate decreasing by 0.4 percentage points to 33.6 per cent. Youth employment saw little change, holding steady at 53.8 per cent.
Full-time positions drove the increase, with 106,000 jobs added (+0.6 per cent), while part-time employment dropped by 46,000 (-1.2 per cent). Public sector employment rose by 31,000 (+0.7 per cent), compared to smaller increases in the private sector (+22,000; +0.2 per cent) and self-employment (+7,900; +0.3 per cent).
Among industries, manufacturing led the way with 28,000 new jobs (+1.5 per cent), marking its first increase since January. Gains were largely seen in Ontario (+12,000) and Alberta (+7,900). Employment also increased in health care and social assistance (+14,000; +0.5 per cent) and agriculture (+13,000; +6.1 per cent).
Wholesale and retail trade saw the largest industry decline, down 21,000 jobs (-0.7 per cent), though employment in that sector remains up year-over-year by 61,000 jobs (+2.1 per cent).
Regionally, Alberta posted the biggest gain in employment with 43,000 new jobs (+1.7 per cent), more than offsetting declines in July and August. The province’s unemployment rate fell by 0.6 percentage points to 7.8 per cent.
New Brunswick added 4,700 jobs (+1.2 per cent) and Manitoba added 3,900 (+0.5 per cent), although unemployment rates in both provinces increased as more people entered the labour force.
In contrast, employment declined by 2,200 in Newfoundland and Labrador (-0.9 per cent). Employment levels remained largely unchanged in Ontario and Quebec.
The average hourly wage increased by 3.3 per cent year-over-year to $36.78, up $1.17 from September 2024.
Among youth, the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 per cent, the highest since September 2010, excluding the pandemic years. “The increase in the youth unemployment rate over the 12 months to September was primarily due to rising unemployment among students,” Statistics Canada reported. The unemployment rate for students reached 17.1 per cent, up 3.1 percentage points from one year earlier.
Douglas Porter, Chief Economist, BMO Capital Markets, said: “Today’s strong report is certainly welcome after the big declines in the prior two months. Canada’s economy continues to hang in there, treading water as it awaits more certainty on trade.”
Andrew Hencic | Director & Senior Economist, TD, said: “Well, that’s quite the surprise. Canada’s job market looks like it recovered all of August’s losses in September. Importantly, even for a noisy data series, this is a strong result. That said, it’s important to note that the unemployment rate remained unchanged as the labour force jumped by an even greater amount. Considering population growth slowed to 28k people, the biggest surprise was a large influx of new workers despite a weak job market.
“The Bank of Canada’s next decision is due at the end of the month and this surprise from the labour market could change the calculus on the decision. However, underlying inflation continues to hover within the target range and the unemployment rate suggest that the labour market still has excess slack. The next inflation report is due on the 21st and the bar will be even higher for inflation to underperform and bring the BoC onside for another rate cut. Markets seems to agree as the pricing for a rate cut materially deteriorated this morning.”
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