Canadian employers collectively added some 51,000 jobs in November, but the unemployment rate jumped as more people looked for work, according to Statistics Canada.
Canada’s unemployment rate now stands at 6.8 per cent, up 0.3 percentage points from October. The jobless rate now stands at its highest levels since January 2017, outside the COVID-19 pandemic years.
Both the magnitude of the rise in the unemployment rate and the number of job gains last month topped the consensus of economists’ expectations.
Some 87,000 people were newly unemployed in November, including all those looking for work or on a temporary layoff. The rising participation rate — those working or looking for a job — was a major factor driving up the jobless rate, as an increase in November offset declines of the same proportion across October and September.
Most large cities, called census metropolitan areas by StatCan, saw their unemployment rates rising last month. Windsor, Ont., led the pack at 8.7 per cent unemployment, followed by Edmonton (8.3 per cent), Toronto (8.1 per cent) and Calgary (7.9 per cent), according to three-month moving averages.
Across the country, job gains were in mainly full-time work and in the public sector last month, StatCan said.
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Employment rose in wholesale and retail trade sector (up 39,000 positions), the construction industry (up 18,000 positions) and in professional, scientific and technical services (up 15,000 positions). But sectors seeing losses included manufacturing (down 29,000 jobs) and transportation and warehousing (down 19,000 jobs).
After falling for six consecutive months, StatCan noted that the employment rate held steady in November as job gains largely kept pace with population growth among those 15 and older.
The November jobs figures are the final major economic data release before the Bank of Canada makes its last interest rate decision of the year on Dec. 11.
More to come…
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