Canadian Employment Increases 0.4% in April; Unemployment Steady at 6.1%

On Friday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that employment in Canada rose by 0.4%, or 90,000 jobs, in April, following little change in March.

Following six consecutive months of declines, the employment rate (the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are employed) was unchanged at 61.4%. Year-over-year, the employment rate was down 0.9 percentage points, as growth in the population 15 and older in the Labor Force Survey (LFS)—up 3.3% to 1.1 million—was offset by employment growth of 1.9%, or 377,000.

StatCan reports that employment gains in April were driven by part-time employment, which rose 50,000, or 1.4%. Year-over-year, part-time employment was up 2.9%, or 104,000, while full-time employment was up 1.7%, or 273,000.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1% in April, following an increase of 0.3 percentage points in March. The rate was up 1.0 percentage points compared with 12 months earlier. There were 1.3 million unemployed people, an increase of 1.3%, or 17,000, from March. This follows a cumulative increase of 7.8%, or 96,000, in February and March. Compared with 12 months earlier, the number of unemployed people was up 23.7%, or 256,000.

The labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who were employed or looking for work—rose 0.1 percentage points to 65.4% in April. This was the first increase since June 2023.