Canadian Employment Rises by 14,000 in March; Unemployment at 6.7%
Labour Force Survey, March 2026
On Friday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that Canadian employment rose by 14,000 jobs, or 0.1%, in March, marking the first monthly increase after a cumulative decline of 109,000 positions over the first two months of the year.
The change in March reflected little variation in both full-time and part-time work. On a year-over-year basis, employment was up 87,000 jobs, or 0.4%, largely reflecting gains recorded over the final four months of 2025.
Unemployment
The unemployment rate held steady at 6.7% in March, following a 0.2 percentage point increase in February. The rate remained below the recent peak of 7.1% recorded in August and September 2025 and was little changed year-over-year. By comparison, the unemployment rate averaged 6.0% from 2017 to 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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