Canada Employment Falls Again in August, Part-Time Jobs Lead Decline

09:00 AM EDT, 09/05/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Canadian employment declined by 66,000, or 0.3% month over month, in August, largely the result of a decline in part-time work, and the employment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 60.5%, said the country's statistical agency Friday.

The unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage point to 7.1%, noted Statistics Canada in a statement on the August Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Both the job data and the unemployment rate were worse than expected. Figures provided by MUFG showed the consensus was for 9,300 job gains and an unemployment rate of 7.0%.

Employment fell for core-aged (25 to 54 years old) men (-58,000; -0.8% month over month) and core-aged women (-35,000; -0.5%) in August. There was little change in employment for youth aged 15 to 24 and people aged 55 and older.

Employment decreased across several industries in August, led by professional, scientific and technical services (-26,000; -1.3% month over month), transportation and warehousing (-23,000; -2.1% month over month ), and manufacturing (-19,000; -1.0%). On the other hand, there was an increase in construction employment (+17,000; +1.1%).

Several provinces recorded employment declines in August; the largest were in Ontario (-26,000, -0.3% month over month), British Columbia (-16,000; -0.5%) and Alberta (-14,000; -0.6%).

Total hours worked were little changed in August (+0.1% month over month) and were up 0.9% compared with 12 months earlier, pointed out StatsCan. Average hourly wages among employees increased 3.2% (up $1.12 to $36.31) on a year-over-year basis in August, following growth of 3.3% in July (not seasonally adjusted).

In August, 33.6% of multiple jobholders reported that the main reason for holding multiple jobs was to pay for essential needs, while another 33.6% indicated that it was to earn extra income (population aged 15 to 69). These shares were little changed from August 2023, the last time the question was asked in the LFS, added the Ottawa-based agency.

The monthly LFS estimates are based on a sample and are therefore subject to sampling variability. As a result, monthly estimates will show more variability than trends observed over longer time periods. This analysis focuses on differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 68% confidence level. LFS estimates at the Canada level don't include the territories.

The LFS estimates are the first in a series of labor market indicators released by StatsCan, which includes indicators from programs such as the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH); Employment Insurance Statistics; and the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey.

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