Unemployment rate rises to 6.7% as Alberta loses 24,000 jobs

Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent in October as employment was little changed, Statistics Canada said Friday, with Alberta losing 24,000 jobs in the month.

The agency’s Labour Force Survey showed employment slipped by 4,700, or 0.0 per cent, and the employment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 60.5 per cent, a third straight monthly decline. The jobless rate climbed 0.2 percentage points as 33,000 more people searched for work. It is down 0.2 points from a year ago and below the recent peak of 6.9 per cent in April.

The report follows declines of 68,000 jobs in September and 42,000 in August, which Statistics Canada reported earlier. Our coverage of the flat economy and shrinking payrolls shows the same softness in the payroll data.

Alberta saw the sharpest provincial drop. Employment there fell by 24,000, or 0.9 per cent, offsetting a similar gain in September, and the unemployment rate jumped 0.9 percentage points to 7.3 per cent. Compared with a year earlier, Alberta employment is still up 41,000, or 1.6 per cent. In September, Alberta had added 23,000 jobs while the country lost 68,000, and the province’s jobless-per-vacancy ratio had been improving.

British Columbia added 12,000 jobs and held at 6.3 per cent unemployment. Newfoundland and Labrador gained 2,900 jobs, while Prince Edward Island lost 1,300. Ontario’s rate rose 0.3 points to 7.3 per cent, Saskatchewan’s rose 0.5 points to 5.9 per cent and Quebec’s fell 0.3 points to 5.7 per cent. Quebec employment is down 106,000, or 2.3 per cent, from a year ago.

The youth unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 rose 0.7 percentage points to 13.7 per cent. For people 55 and older it rose 0.2 points to 5.5 per cent, while rates for core-aged men (5.8 per cent) and women (5.3 per cent) were unchanged.

By industry, wholesale and retail trade lost 29,000 jobs, or 1.0 per cent, and is down 113,000 from a year earlier. Construction added 16,000 and educational services 15,000. Private sector employment fell by 53,000, the first decline since February, while the public sector added 50,000.

Of the 1.5 million people unemployed, 23.7 per cent had been looking for work for 27 weeks or more, up from 21.5 per cent a year earlier and well above the 2017 to 2019 average of 17.2 per cent. The share reached 32.7 per cent among those 55 and older. Average hourly wages rose 2.2 per cent from a year earlier, to $37.89.

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Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily, Labour Force Survey, October 2026, released Nov. 6, 2026.