Canadian Employment Improves and Unemployment Declines in December
Labour Force Survey, December 2024
On Friday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that employment rose 0.4%, or by 91,000 jobs, in December. The employment rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 60.8%.
In December, employment increased across several provinces: Alberta added 35,000 jobs (up 1.4%), Ontario gained 23,000, (up 0.3%), British Columbia saw an increase of 14,000 (up 0.5%), Nova Scotia added 7,400 (up 1.4%), and Saskatchewan grew by 4,000 (up 0.7%). However, Manitoba experienced a decline, losing 7,200 jobs (down 1.0%). Employment remained relatively unchanged in the other provinces.
The unemployment rate in December was 6.7%, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. November’s rate was the highest since January 2017, excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Year-over-year, the unemployment rate increased by 0.9 percentage points.
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