Canadian Employment Increases in February; Unemployment Inches Higher to 5.8%

On Friday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that Canadian employment increased by 41,000 jobs in February. The employment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to a reading of 61.5%, as population growth was up 0.3%, continuing to outpace employment growth—up 0.2%.

StatCan reported that employment gains were spread across several industries in the service-producing sector, including the following:

• Accommodations and food services posted a 2.4% increase, adding 26,000 new jobs.
• Professional, scientific, and technical services increased 0.9%, adding 18,000 positions.

Those increases were offset by the following declines:

• Educational services posted a 1.1% decline, a loss of 17,000 jobs.
• Manufacturing posted a 0.8% decline and shed 14,000 positions.

The unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 5.8% in February, offsetting the decline recorded in January. The unemployment rate has held relatively steady in recent months, sitting at 5.8% for three of the past four months. This follows an upward trend from April 2023 to November 2023, when the rate increased from 5.1% to 5.8%.