Canada Unemployment Rate

In April 2025, Canada's unemployment rate climbed to 6.9% from 6.7% in the previous month, hitting its highest level in over three years since November of the previous year. This exceeded market expectations of 6.8%. The rise can be attributed to a significant increase in the number of jobless individuals, which reached 1,548,100 - a spike of 39,300. This signals that businesses may be starting to feel the impact of tariffs imposed by the United States. Despite this, net employment saw a modest increase of 7,500, slightly surpassing the expected 2,500. This helped to offset most of the 32,600 job losses from the previous month. The manufacturing sector was hit hardest, experiencing a net decline of 31,000 jobs due to high tariffs on aluminum, steel, and auto industries. However, despite this contraction, the labor force expanded, leading to an uptick in the labor force participation rate by 0.1 percentage points to 65.3%.