In December, employment was little changed (+8,200; 0.0%) and the employment rate held steady at 60.9%. The unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 6.8%, as more people searched for work. Employment rose among people aged 55 and older (+33,000; +0.8%), while it fell among youth aged 15 to 24 (-27,000; -1.0%), reported Statistics Canada on Friday.
There were more people working in health care and social assistance (+21,000; +0.7%) as well as in ‘other services’ such as personal and repair services (+15,000; +2.0%). At the same time, fewer people were employed in professional, scientific and technical services (-18,000; -0.9%), accommodation and food services (-12,000; -1.0%), and utilities (-5,300; -3.0%), said the federal agency.
Employment was up in Quebec (+16,000; +0.3%) while it fell in Alberta (-14,000; -0.5%) and Saskatchewan (-4,000; -0.6%). There was little employment change in the other provinces. Average hourly wages among employees increased 3.4% (+$1.23 to $37.06) on a year-over-year basis in December, following growth of 3.6% in November (not seasonally adjusted), it added.
“Employment was little changed (+8,200; 0.0%) in December. This followed three consecutive monthly increases in September, October and November (totalling 181,000; +0.9%). The employment rate—the percentage of the population aged 15 years and older who are employed—held steady at 60.9% in December,” explained Statistics Canada.
“Full-time employment rose by 50,000 (+0.3%) in December while part-time employment fell by 42,000 (-1.1%). The decline in part-time work in the month partially offsets a cumulative gain of 148,000 (+3.9%) in October and November. Over the 12 months to December 2025, part-time employment rose at a faster pace (+2.6%; +99,000) than full-time employment (+0.7%; +128,000).
“In December, there was little change in the number of private and public sector employees, as well as in the number of self-employed workers.”
The unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 6.8% in December, as more people searched for work. The increase in the unemployment rate in December partially offsets a cumulative decline of 0.6 percentage points in the previous two months, noted Statistics Canada.
“There were 1.6 million people unemployed in December, an increase of 73,000 (+4.9%) in the month. The participation rate—the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who were employed or looking for work—rose by 0.3 percentage points to 65.4%. On a year-over-year basis, the labour force participation rate was unchanged in December,” it said.
“Digital platform employment is a form of work that can be flexible and easy to access, though it typically offers short-term tasks and limited job security. As one of the core components of the gig economy, this type of work involves paid work organized through websites or apps that connect workers with clients and often oversee or organize the work process,” said Statistics Canada.
“In December 2025, 667,000 Canadians (2.3% of the population aged 15 to 69) had done paid work through a digital platform in the previous 12 months, little changed compared with December 2024 (671,000; 2.3%). These workers provided services; rented out accommodation, goods or equipment; or sold goods through websites or apps that coordinated their work activities or managed payments.
The most common types of digital platform employment that Canadians did in the 12 months to December remained the delivery of food or other goods (272,000 people), personal transport services (184,000 people) and selling goods online with the specific purpose of earning income (92,000 people).”
More from Retail Insider:
