Canada lost 68,000 jobs in September, the second straight monthly decline, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.5 per cent from 6.4 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday.
The drop of 0.3 per cent followed a loss of about 42,000 jobs in August, according to Global News. Reuters, carried by CTV News, reported that the result surprised widespread expectations and effectively wiped out the employment gains seen earlier this year.
Full-time work fell by 35,000 and part-time work by 33,000, Global News reported, citing the agency’s Labour Force Survey. Young people aged 15 to 24 lost 48,000 jobs, while women aged 25 to 54 lost 28,000. The youth unemployment rate was little changed at 13 per cent.
By industry, education lost 35,000 jobs, health care and social assistance lost 23,000 and manufacturing lost 13,000, Global News reported.
Statistics Canada publishes the Labour Force Survey monthly, based on a sample of households. The survey is the main early reading of the national job market, and it is closely watched by economists, governments and the Bank of Canada.
The central bank has held its key interest rate at 2.25 per cent for about a year, Global News reported. September’s report is the bank’s last look at the labour market before its next rate decision on Oct. 28. Global News said markets have shifted toward a slightly higher chance of a rate hike sooner rather than later, though the central bank has not commented on the figures.
Economists were not overly concerned after the August losses, Global News reported, pointing to a relatively stable unemployment rate as a sign the labour market had not taken a major step back. The article did not say whether they had commented on the September figures.
A rise of 0.1 percentage point in the unemployment rate is small. A second consecutive monthly decline in employment, however, will draw more attention to whether the slowdown is spreading. The September numbers show losses in both full-time and part-time work, and in several large sectors.
This report is developing. The provincial breakdown, wage growth and hours worked were not available in the sources reviewed for this article, and Canada News Media will update it when those figures are confirmed. The information here is drawn from Global News, BNN Bloomberg and CTV News (Reuters), which each reported the headline figures from Statistics Canada’s release.
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