Canadian Employment Increases in August

Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported on Friday (9-8-23) that employment throughout Canada increased by 40,000, or 0.2%, in August, following little change in July. Since January, employment has increased by 174,000, or 0.9%—an average monthly increase of 25,000.

The employment rate fell 0.1 percentage point in August to 61.9%. That is down 0.6 percentage point compared to January but little changed from August 2022.

Employment increased in the following sectors:

• Professional, scientific, and technical services—up 52,000, or 2.8%
• Construction—up 34,000, or 2.2%

Those gains were offset by declines in the following sectors:

• Educational Services—down 44,000, or 2.9%
• Manufacturing—down 30,000, or 1.6%

Employment changes in other industries were smaller.

The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5% in August, after increasing by 0.5 percentage point from April to July. The number of people who were unemployed stood at 1.2 million, little changed from the previous month but up 123,000, or 11.6%, since April.