Canadian Employment Increases in January; Unemployment Trends Lower

On Friday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) released the results of its January Labor Force Survey (LFS), showing that employment increased 0.4%, or 76,000 positions.

Employment in Ontario rose by 0.5% (+39,000 jobs) in January, followed by a 0.8% increase (+23,000) in British Columbia and a 0.7% gain (+2,900) in New Brunswick. Employment in other provinces saw little change.

The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 6.6%, the second consecutive monthly decline from a recent peak of 6.9% in November 2024. This followed a 1.9 percentage point increase from March 2023 to November 2024, as labor market conditions cooled after a period of low unemployment and high job vacancies post-pandemic.

The number of unemployed people remained stable at 1.5 million in January but was up 251,000 (+20.2%) from a year earlier. Among those unemployed in December, 65.4% remained unemployed in January, compared with 61.7% a year earlier (not seasonally adjusted), suggesting ongoing challenges in finding work despite recent job gains, StatCan said.