Employment Edges Up, Jobless Rate Stays Steady
Canada’s employment landscape showed signs of improvement in September, with a net gain of 60,000 jobs (+0.3%) and the national unemployment rate holding steady at 7.1%.
The employment rate edged up to 60.6%, reflecting a partial recovery after summer declines, found Statistics Canada.
"The September job numbers were a reminder that volatility doesn’t just work in a downward direction. The Canadian labour market capped off a choppy third quarter on the upside, with employment posting a solid 60,000 increase, reversing nearly all of the decline of a month prior," says Brendan Bernard, senior economist at Indeed Canada.
"On net, the number of people working was nearly unchanged from May, a sign of soft, but not spiraling underlying conditions."
Full-Time Positions Drive Majority of Gains
The majority of September’s employment gains came from full-time positions, which increased by 106,000 (+0.6%). In contrast, part-time employment dropped by 46,000 (-1.2%).
Public sector employment rose by 31,000 (+0.7%), outpacing more modest increases in the private sector (+22,000; +0.2%) and among self-employed workers (+7,900; +0.3%).
The government notes that, “from January to September, employment has recorded little net growth (+22,000; +0.1%).”
Canada’s labour market took a sharp downturn in August, with employment falling by 66,000—marking the largest monthly drop so far in 2025.
Core-Aged Workers See Biggest Gains
Adults aged 25 to 54 were the main beneficiaries of September’s job growth. Women in this group gained 76,000 jobs (+1.2%), while men added 33,000 (+0.5%).
This reversed declines seen in August and pushed the employment rate for core-aged women to 80.4% and for men to 86.1%, found Statistics Canada.
Employment for Canadians aged 55 and over fell by 44,000 (-1.0%), with their employment rate dropping to 33.6%. Over the past year, this group’s employment rate has declined by 0.6 percentage points.
Youth aged 15 to 24 saw little change in employment, with their rate holding at 53.8%.
“The youth employment rate had trended down from a high of 59.6% in March 2023 to 54.0% in August 2024, a rate not previously seen since February 1999 (excluding 2020 and 2021),” said Statistics Canada.
The youth unemployment rate climbed to 14.7% in September—the highest since 2010, outside pandemic years: “The increase in the youth unemployment rate over the 12 months to September was primarily due to rising unemployment among students.”
Among students, the jobless rate reached 17.1%, up 3.1 points from last year, while non-students saw little change at 11.9%. The summer job market was especially tough for returning students, who faced an average unemployment rate of 17.9% from May to August—the highest since 2009, excluding 2020.
The unemployment rate for Canadians aged 15 to 24 has risen by more than 5.5 percentage points since 2022—far exceeding the average increase seen during previous periods of economic weakness, CIBC reported.
Jobs Snapshot by Sector, Region
Manufacturing employment rose by 28,000 (+1.5%) in September, marking the first increase since January. Most of these gains were in Ontario and Alberta. Health care and social assistance added 14,000 jobs (+0.5%), and agriculture grew by 13,000 (+6.1%), with increases concentrated in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.
However, employment decreased in wholesale and retail trade (-21,000; -0.7%), despite year-over-year growth in that sector, found Statistics Canada.
"Trade-exposed industries are far from out of the woods given ongoing tariff uncertainty. But the solid month highlights how things are holding on, at least in the near-term," said Bernard.
Alberta recorded the largest employment gain, adding 43,000 jobs (+1.7%) and offsetting losses from July and August. The province’s unemployment rate dropped by 0.6 percentage points to 7.8%. New Brunswick (+4,700; +1.2%) and Manitoba (+3,900; +0.5%) also posted job gains, though both provinces saw their unemployment rates rise as more people entered the workforce.
In contrast, Newfoundland and Labrador lost 2,200 jobs (-0.9%). Quebec’s employment was stable for a third consecutive month, with the unemployment rate at 5.7%, found Statistics Canada. Ontario saw little change in employment, but its jobless rate increased to 7.9%, up 0.8 points from a year earlier. In Toronto, the unemployment rate remained at 8.9%.
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