Transportation and warehousing, information among biggest gainers in job numbers, says report
There was little change when it comes to Canada’s employment numbers for the month of June compared to the statistics for May, according to a Statistics Canada (StatCan).
Overall, Canada lost 1,400 jobs in June following an increase of 27,000 in May.
Canada added 90,000 jobs in April.
The county’s employment rate also continued it drop from 61.3 in May to 61.1 in June.
“The employment rate for returning students aged 15 to 24 was 46.8 per cent, the lowest rate since June 1998, outside of June 2020 during the first year of the pandemic (not seasonally adjusted). This marks a notable decline from the recent high of 53.7 per cent observed in June 2022,” said StatCan.
Source: Statistics Canada
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose to 6.4 per cent in June, from 6.2 per cent in May and 6.1 per cent in April.
“That’s the eighth decrease in the past nine months,” said StatCan. “The employment rate has declined by 1.3 percentage points from the recent high of 62.4% observed in January and February of 2023.”
Source: Statistics Canada
The unemployment rate has also turned to worse for marginalized workers, according to StatCan.
“In the 12 months to June, the unemployment rate rose by 4.4 percentage points to 11.9 per cent for core-aged Black Canadians (three-month moving averages, not seasonally adjusted). The rate was up by 5.7 percentage points to 12.3% for Black men and by 3.0 percentage points to 11.4% for Black women,” said StatCan.
“Among South Asians in the core-aged group, the unemployment rate was up 1.7 percentage points on a year-over-year basis to 6.7 per cent in June. For core-aged South Asian women, the unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent (+1.8 percentage points from a year earlier), while it was 5.9 per cent for core-aged South Asian men (+1.7 percentage points from a year earlier).
“For core-aged Chinese Canadians, the unemployment rate was 6.3% in June, and was little changed compared with 12 months earlier.”
In comparison, the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 3.8 per cent in the 12 months to June among the non-racialized, non-Indigenous population of the core working age.
There has been a decline in business optimism among Canadian business leaders due to ongoing economic challenges, according to the latest Zoho Canada Business Outlook Report by Zoho Corporation.
Sectoral, regional differences
Among the different sectors, transportation and warehousing (-11,700); information, culture and recreation (-11,000) and wholesale and retail trade (-10,300) were the biggest losers in job numbers in June.
Meanwhile, the biggest gainers were accommodation and food services (+17,2000), agriculture (+12,300) and educational services (+8,000).
Source: Statistics Canada
Here’s how job numbers changed from May to June 2024 for each province, according to StatCan:
- Ontario: +9,800
- Alberta: +8,100
- Manitoba: +3,100
- New Brunswick: +3,000
- Newfoundland and Labrador: +2,600
- Prince Edward Island: +600
- Saskatchewan: +400
- Nova Scotia: -1,700
- British Columbia: -9,700
- Quebec: -17,700
“For the sixth consecutive month, employment in Ontario has increased, demonstrating that our plan to rebuild the economy is working,” said Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s minister of economic development, job creation and trade.
“Since the beginning of this year, more than 140,000 jobs have been added to our economy as our government continues to work hard to attract new investments and create jobs in every part of the province.
“In June, we led a delegation to Europe and set-up shop at the Collision Conference in Toronto, promoting Ontario’s business competitiveness, strong supply chains and highly skilled workforce to international companies.”
About half of hiring managers are worried about job posting scams in Canada, according to a previous Express Employment Professionals report.
