Canada’s unemployment rate fell to a record low last month as more people entered a hot job market – and economists say the unemployment rate could fall even lower. The unemployment rate in March was 5.3 percent, up from 5.5 percent a month earlier, as the economy added 72,500 jobs. The Statistics Canada said on Friday it was the lowest unemployment rate since comparable data became available in 1976 and below its previous low of 5.4 percent in May 2019. It was also a reversal from the early days of the pandemic. in May 2020, when the unemployment rate reached a record 13.4%. CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham said oil-producing provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan were not full-time before the pandemic struck and may have room for more jobs that could reduce unemployment. “There is room for the unemployment rate to fall slightly,” he said. “This means that there is little room for employment growth to continue to outpace population growth, but not to the extent it has recently.” The decline in the unemployment rate last month was gains in various sectors. Key to the earnings were 24,500 women over 55 who found work and 35,300 men between the ages of 25 and 54 who took up jobs, mostly part-time. The tightening of the labor market meant that the average hourly wage was up 3.4 percent year-on-year in March compared with an annual increase of 3.1 percent in February. The rate fell short of the annual rate of inflation in February, which RSM Canada economist Tu Nguyen said was well on its way to its highest point since the early 1980s. “We are in an overheated economy approaching full employment,” he said, noting that wages could rise further. Despite earnings for older workers, the employment rate for those over 55 was 1.2 percentage points lower in March than in February 2020. Katherine Scott, a senior fellow at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, said the number could be a combination of many factors. He pointed to an aging population and older women retiring, leaving school to care for family members or that many were working on low wages that have not yet fully recovered. “It’s a real challenge because this is a group that is financially vulnerable, may have a long employment history, may not have or may not have private retirement income,” Scott said. “So leaving the job market in the mid to late ’50s can prepare you for very difficult financial years. With more than 900,000 job vacancies since January, the latest data available from Statistics Canada, the job report notes that another potential workforce is people aged 55 and over. In all, 39300 jobs were created for this group in March. Statistics Canada said the unemployment rate last month would be 7.2 percent if it included people who wanted a job but were not looking for a job, falling to pre-pandemic levels for the first time. Since reaching a peak of 1.5 million in April 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people looking for work but not actively looking for it has dropped to 377,000, similar in size and proportion to the total labor force. potential observed in March in each of the three years before 2020. The Statistics Canada said the reasons for not looking for work varied. Just over a quarter did not appear due to illness or disability. Another fifth was part of a team waiting for a recall or response from an employer or not believing there was anything available. Nearly one-fifth cited personal and family responsibilities as the reason they stopped looking for work. Here’s a quick look at March employment in Canada (numbers from last month in parentheses):
Unemployment rate: 5.3 percent (5.5) Employment rate: 61.9 percent (61.8) Participation rate: 65.4 percent (65.4) Number of unemployed: 1,100,200 (1,135,500) Working number: 19.585.200 (19.512.700) Youth unemployment rate (15-24 years old): 9.8 percent (10.9) Unemployment rate for men (25+): 4.4 percent (4.7) Unemployment rate for women (25+): 4.8 percent (4.5)
The following are the unemployment rates last month by province (figures from the previous month in parentheses):
Newfoundland and Labrador 12.9 percent (12.3) Prince Edward Island 8.1 percent (9.0) Nova Scotia 6.5 percent (6.6) New Brunswick 7.7 percent (7.9) Quebec 4.1 percent (4.5) Ontario 5.3 percent (5.5) Manitoba 5.3 percent (4.8) Saskatchewan 5.0 percent (4.7) Alberta 6.5 percent (6.8) British Columbia 5.1 percent (4.9)
The Statistics Canada also published seasonally adjusted, mobile three-month unemployment rates for major cities. He warns, however, that the data may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. The following are the unemployment rates last month per city (numbers from the previous month in parentheses):
St. John’s, NL 7.4 percent (7.3) Halifax 5.4 percent (5.7) Moncton, NB 5.7 percent (6.1) Saint John, NB 7.4 percent (7.3) Saguenay, Que. 4.5 percent (4.4) Quebec City 2.7 percent (2.8) Sherbrooke, Que. 2.6 percent (2.8) Trois-Rivieres, Que. 3.9 percent (5.0) Montreal 5.1 percent (5.2) Gatineau, Que. 3.8 percent (4.6) Ottawa 5.3 percent (5.0) Kingston, Ont. 5.9 percent (5.7) Peterborough, Ont. 3.8 percent (5.9) Oshawa, Ont. 5.4 percent (6.4) Toronto 7.2 percent (7.4) Hamilton, Aud. 5.3 percent (5.2) St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 6.2 percent (6.3) Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ont. 5.4 percent (5.2) Brantford, Ont. 5.1 percent (5.5) Guelph, Ont. 4.8 percent (4.3) London, Aud. 5.3 percent (5.8) Windsor, Ont. 8.3 percent (8.3) Barrie, Ont. 7.6 percent (7.7) Greater Sudbury, Ont. 4.0 percent (4.3) Thunder Bay, Ont. 4.9 percent (5.9) Winnipeg 5.1 percent (4.9) Regina 5.2 percent (5.4) Saskatchewan 4.6 percent (4.8) Calgary 7.7 percent (8.0) Edmonton 7.1 percent (6.9) Kelowna, BC 6.7 percent (7.1) Abbotsford-Mission, BC 3.9 percent (4.2) Vancouver 5.4 percent (5.4) Victoria 4.1 percent (4.2)
This Canadian Press report was first published on April 8, 2022.
