This means that Canada has one million unemployed. The majority of those unemployed in January had been unemployed for a relatively short time, ranging from 1 to 13 weeks, according to Statistics Canada.
The federal agency notes that strong job gains occurred in both Canada and the United States in January.
The Canadian economy added 150,000 new jobs last month, according to Statistics Canada’s latest labor force survey released Friday.
Employment in Canada has been on an upward trend since September, adding a total of 326,000 jobs. This is despite forecasters anticipating that the higher cost of borrowing will slow the economy considerably this year and weigh on employment.
The increase in the participation rate extends to all major demographic groups,55To64years old”,”text”:”especially in women of core working age and in people aged 55-64″}}”>especially in women of core working age and in people between the ages of 55 and 64says the report.
According to data collected during the week of January 15 to 21, employment increased by 1% among workers over 55 (or +43,000), and by 0.8% among people aged 25 to 54. years (+100,000; +0.8%). On average, the hourly wage also increased by 4.5% compared to January 2022, but still lags behind inflation.
Employment grew mainly in trade (+59,000; +2.0%), health care and social assistance (+40,000; +1.5%), and education (+18,000; +1.3%). On the other hand, employment fell in transportation and warehousing (-17,000; -1.7%).
In Quebec, employment increased by 47,000 (+1.1%) in January compared to the previous month. These new jobs are primarily linked to the natural resources sector (5.6% attributed to the sector forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction
), but also related to accommodation and food services (3.5%).
The most significant job losses concern agriculture (-9.8%), as well as the information, culture and leisure sector (-4.5%).
Elsewhere in the country, the unemployment rate in January was 6% in Alberta (+0.4 percentage points), 5.2% in Ontario, and 11.8% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
