Canada Employment Falls 25,000 In January, Unemployment Rate Drops To 6.5%

08:49 AM EST, 02/06/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Employment edged down in January by 25,000 jobs, or 0.1% month over month, and the employment rate decreased 0.1 percentage point to 60.8%, said Statistics Canada on Friday it its Labour Force Survey (LFS).

January's job losses were worse than the 5,200 consensus gain provided by MUFG.

In January, employment fell by 27,000 (-0.4%) among core-aged women (25 to 54 years old), wrote Canada's statistical agency in a statement. There was little employment change among the other major demographic groups.

The unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage point to 6.5%, as fewer people searched for work, added StatsCan. That was better than the 6.8% consensus rate of MUFG.

Fewer people were employed in manufacturing (-28,000; -1.5% monht over month), educational services (-24,000; -1.5% month over month) and public administration (-10,000; -0.8%). At the same time, employment increased in information, culture and recreation (+17,000; +2.0%), business, building and other support services (+14,000; +2.1%), agriculture (+11,000; +4.5%) and utilities (+4,200; +2.5%).

Average hourly wages among employees were up 3.3%, or $1.18 to $37.17, on a year-over-year basis in January, following growth of 3.4% in December (not seasonally adjusted).

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 labour 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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