Canadian Employment Increased and Unemployment Declined in March 2021

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that employment in Canada increased by 303,000 or 1.6% in March and is now within 1.5% of its pre-COVID-19 level of February 2020. The unemployment rate fell -0.7% points to 7.5% the lowest level since February 2020. Both full (+175,000 or 1.2%) and part-time (128,000 or 3.9%) employment increased. There were 1.5 million Canadians unemployed, up 371,000 or 32.4% compared to February 2020. Compared with February 2020, there were -296,000 or -1.5% fewer people employed in March 2021 and nearly 30.4% people worked less than half of their usual hours. As a result, the labor underutilization rate fell -1.9% point to 14.7%, which is the lowest level since February 2020.