OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.8 per cent last month as more people looked for work in a weakening job market.
Statistics Canada’s November labour force survey says the jobless rate last month reached the highest since January 2017, outside of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent in October.
Meanwhile, the economy added 51,000 jobs in November, with employment gains concentrated in full-time work.
The labour force participation rate, which reflects the proportion of working-age people who are employed or looking for work, rose by 0.3 percentage points last month.
The Bank of Canada will have its eye on Friday’s job report as it gears up for its interest rate announcement on Wednesday.
Forecasters are widely expecting the central bank to deliver another interest rate cut, though there hasn’t been consensus on the size of that reduction.
High interest rates have cooled the labour market significantly over the last year.
For unemployed Canadians, that’s meant longer periods without work.
The job report says 46.3 per cent of unemployed Canadians in November had not worked in the last year or had never worked, up from 39.5 per cent a year ago.
Average hourly wages were up 4.1 per cent from a year ago, marking a slowdown in annual wage growth from October.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version stated the unemployment rate was the highest since January in the headline. In fact, it was the highest since January 2017 outside of the pandemic.
