Canada Surprises With Job Losses, Higher Unemployment Rate In April

08:50 AM EDT, 05/08/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Canada lost 18,000 jobs, or 0.1% month over month in April, while the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage point to 6.9%, as more people searched for work, said the country's statistical agency in Friday's Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The employment level and unemployment rate were worse than expected. A consensus provided by MUFG saw 12,900 jobs gained in April and an unemployment rate of 6.7%.

Full-time employment fell by 47,000, or 0.3% month over month, while part-time employment edged up 29,000, or 0.8%, noted Statistics Canada in a statement. The net overall decline in employment over the first four months of 2026 was concentrated in full-time work, which fell by 111,000 over the period.

Average hourly wages among employees were up 4.5%, or $1.64 to $37.77, on a year-over-year basis in April, following growth of 4.7% in March, not seasonally adjusted, added StatsCan.

The employment rate -- the proportion of the population aged 15 and older employed -- decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 60.5% in April, matching a recent low observed in August 2025. The rate was down 0.3 percentage point on a year-over-year basis in April.

The participation rate -- the proportion of the population aged 15 and older employed or looking for work -- rose by 0.1 percentage point to 65.0% in April as more people were in the labor force searching for work. The increase was concentrated among core-aged people, whose labor force participation rate rose 0.3 percentage point to 88.5%.

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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