Canadian Employment and Unemployment Data for May
Labour Force Survey, May 2024
On Friday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) released its Labor Force Survey for May. The total number of employed Canadians increased 0.1%, or by 27,000 positions, in May. However, the employment rate declined 0.1 percentage points to 61.3%. This followed an increase in employment of 0.4%, or 90,000 jobs, in April. Year-over-year, employment was up 2.0%, or by 402,000 jobs, in May.
The unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 6.2% in May. The unemployment rate has trended higher since April 2023, increasing 1.1 percentage points over the period. There were 1.4 million unemployed Canadians in May, an increase of 2.1%, or 28,000, from April.
Long-term unemployment—the proportion of those who had been continuously unemployed for 27 weeks or more—stood at 18.2% in May, up from a recent low of 13.2% in August 2023.
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