Canada’s Unemployment Rate Falls To 5.2% In September

Canada’s unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 5.2 per cent in September as the economy added 21,000 jobs in the month.

In its labour force update on Friday, Statistics Canada said the unemployment rate fell as fewer people looked for work..

Most of the job gains were in educational services and health care and social assistance but they were offset by losses in manufacturing, information, culture and recreation, transportation and warehousing, and public administration.

Statistics Canada said employment increased in British Columbia, however there were fewer people working in Ontario and Prince Edward Island.

Wages grew by 5.2 per cent September compared with a year ago, the fourth straight month of wage growth of five per cent or higher. The average hourly wage is now at $31.67.

The labour force participation rate — the percentage of people who want and are looking for a job — edged down slightly by 0.1 per cent in September.

Prior to September, the Canadian economy had posted three consecutive months of job losses. In August, the unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent, up from a record low of 4.9 per cent in the month prior.

The labour update comes as the Bank of Canada has been raising interest rates aggressively since March to tame inflation. It has said that the tight labour markets were partly to blame for high inflation.