Canada’s unemployment rate edges down to 5.1%

Statistics Canada says the country added 40,000 jobs in May, an increase of 0.2 per cent over the previous month, driven largely by increasing labour demand in accommodation and food services sectors.

While full-time work grew, bringing Canada’s unemployment levels to a new record low, part-time work decreased as did jobs in the goods-producing sector blamed on a decline in manufacturing.

“Employment in manufacturing fell by 43,000 (-2.4%) in May, erasing gains seen during the fall of 2021 and returning employment in the industry to a level on par with May 2021. Monthly decreases were seen in six provinces, with the largest recorded in British Columbia (-11,000; -5.8%), Ontario (-16,000; -2.0%) and Quebec (-7,700; -1.5%),” the agency said.

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“The adjusted unemployment rate—which includes those who wanted a job but did not look for one—fell 0.2 percentage points to 7.0% in May, the lowest rate on record since comparable data became available in 1976,” the agency said.

Following high rates of illness in January when about 10 per cent of employees were off for some time, the number of absences in May have returned to close to pre-pandemic levels.

While some provinces held steady when it comes to employment, others dipped.

“Employment increased in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Alberta. It declined in New Brunswick and was little changed in all other provinces,” the agency said.

Alberta alone added 28,000 jobs last month, due to a booming professional, scientific, and technical services sector as well as an in-demand transportation industry.

Statistics Canada says average hourly wages for all employees rose 3.9 per cent on a year-over-year basis in May, compared with an increase of 3.3 per cent in April. Overall, the highest-wage industries have seen a more positive growth, while lower-wage jobs have stalled or decreased in the last three years.

Students, who have been sidelined throughout the pandemic to many first-time job opportunities, are also returning to the labour market.

“Returning students aged 15 to 24 benefitted from favourable labour market conditions in May, with nearly half (49.8%) being employed. This was 2.8 percentage points higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2019 (47.0%) and well above the level in May 2021 (39.5%), when students seeking to pay for their fall studies continued to face labour market challenges resulting from COVID-19,” the agency explained.

With files from the Canadian Press