Canada’s unemployment rate rose to a six-month high in April to 6.9 per cent as the economy lost a net of 17,700 jobs in March, Statistics Canada data showed on Friday, indicating a continued weakness in the labour market which has struggled in the face of U.S tariffs and trade uncertainty.
Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted net job gains of 15,0000 and the unemployment rate of 6.7 per cent, almost mirroring the month of March when employment rose by 14,100 and jobless rate was the same.
The Bank of Canada said in its Monetary Policy Report last month that indicators such as the employment rate, hours worked and job vacancies suggest slack, or underutilized capacity, in the labour market, although layoffs remain modest.
The looming uncertainty around the future of the North American free trade deal and the knock-on impacts of the higher prices from the Iran war has continued to layer over the impact of U.S. tariff on the economy for over a year.
The job losses were completely concentrated in full-time jobs which lost a net of 46,700 people, offset only by a gain of 29,000 jobs in the part-time sector.
The net overall decline in employment over the first four months of 2026 was concentrated in full-time work, which fell by 111,000 between January and April, Statscan said.
The goods-producing sector, which is the most exposed to U.S. tariffs, saw employment drop by 26,800 jobs in April, while the services sector, where four out of every five people are employed in Canada, reported a 9,100 job gain.
Data indicate more people looking for work
Average hourly wages of permanent employees, a metric closely tracked by the BoC to gauge rise in inflation expectations, grew 4.8 per cent from a year earlier, versus 5.1 per cent in March.
The participation rate – the portion of the population over the age of 15 that is economically active – edged up to 65 per cent in April from 64.9 per cent in the prior month, Statscan said.
A higher participation rate along with a higher unemployment rate indicates more people were searching for work in the economy.
The unemployment rate among the core-aged work force of 25-54 year-olds as well as among the youth increased to 6 per cent and 14.3 per cent respectively.
“For the Bank of Canada, evidence that slack within the labour market is, if anything, increasing rather than reducing, should limit the ability for the oil price shock to spread into wider inflationary pressure,” Andrew Grantham, a senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note.
CIBC expects Canada’s central bank to leave interest rates unchanged throughout 2026, he said. Money markets are pricing in one 25-basis-point rate hike in October, which would bring the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate to 2.5 per cent.
The Canadian dollar was trading down at 73.14 U.S. cents. Yields on the two-year government bonds were down 8.4 basis points to 2.501 per cent.
