Unemployment rate inches up to 5.7% despite Canada adding 18,000 jobs last month

Canada’s economy added 17,500 new jobs last month, slightly lower than what economists were expecting, and not enough to stop the jobless rate from inching up to 5.7 per cent, because more people joined the work force.

Statistics Canada reported Friday that the construction sector added 23,000 jobs, while the information, culture and recreation sector added 21,000.

On the other side of the ledger, retail trade lost 22,000 workers, while manufacturing shrank by 19,000.

The jobs gain was not enough to stop the unemployment rate from moving up two ticks to 5.7 per cent, because 57,800 people also joined the Canadian work force in October. The jobless rate has moved higher in four of the last six months.

It’s also 0.8 percentage points above the five-decade low of 4.9 it hit in the summer of 2022, and perhaps more importantly, it’s back to the same level it was at before the pandemic hit in March of 2020.

The comparatively weak jobs number comes after two fairly strong months in a row, as 64,000 jobs were added in September and 40,000 in August.