Canadian Employment and Unemployment Data for June 2024

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported on Friday (7-5-24), that the Canadian employment was virtually unchanged in June, down 1,400 jobs or 0.0%, this following a 27,000 or 0.1% increase in May.

The employment rate—the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are employed—declined by 0.2 percentage points to 61.1% in June. This marks the eighth consecutive decrease in the past nine months. The employment rate has declined by 1.3 percentage points from the recent high of 62.4% observed in January and February of 2023.

On a year-over-year basis (Jun. 23 – Jun. 24) , employment was up by 343,000 jobs or 1.7%  in June 2024. Employment growth in the 12 months to June was faster in the public sector, which gained 183,000 jobs or up +4.3%, than in the private sector which posted 106,000 new jobs or up 0.8%. Self-employment in June was up on a year-over-year basis by 55,000 jobs or 2.1% but remained lower than its average from 2017 to 2019 which was 121,000 jobs or 4.3%, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The overall unemployment rate in Canada rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.4% in June. It has trended up since April 2023, rising 1.3 percentage points over the period. There were 1.4 million unemployed people in June 2024, an increase of 42,000 or up 3.1% from May 2024.

StatsCan notes that as the unemployment rate has increased over the past year, so too, has the proportion of long-term unemployed. Among the unemployed, 17.6% had been continuously unemployed for 27 weeks or more in June 2024, up 4.0 percentage points from a year earlier.