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Black Canadians saw big employment gains, with their jobless rate falling 5.9 percentage points to 11.7 per cent, while the unemployment rate for Filipino Canadians fell to 8.5 per cent, Statscan data showed. The white jobless rate was 7 per cent.
Employment in educational services rose by 5 per cent in September, as students returned to school and staffing levels were adjusted to support COVID-19 classroom changes.
That helped boost employment for mothers with children under the age of 18, bringing employment levels for both mothers and fathers in line with February.
However, more mothers continued to work less than half their usual hours than fathers, with hours lost due to both personal reasons, like child care demands, and reduced shifts.
And with COVID-19 cases surging in Canada, leading to fresh restrictions in the most populous provinces, economists warned there were major headwinds on the horizon for the coming months.
“I would be shocked if job growth didn’t slow in the next couple of months, and the economy as well, and I suspect we’re going to see cooler growth rates ahead,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
If those who wanted to work but did not look for a job were included as unemployed in September, the adjusted unemployment rate would have been 11.9 per cent, Statscan said.
© Thomson Reuters 2020
