Unemployment reaches non-pandemic high of 6.6%: StatsCan

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OTTAWA — Canada’s job woes continued in August, with unemployment reaching its highest levels, outside of the COVID-19 pandemic, since mid-2017.

And while Canada’s workforce increased by nearly 83,000 people over the past month, the country lost nearly 44,000 full-time jobs over the same time period.

Released Friday, Statistics Canada’s August 2024 Labour Force Survey said that while Canada’s employment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points in August, the unemployment rate rose 0.2 points to 6.6%.

That’s the highest unemployment has been since May 2017, minus the high unemployment levels seen during COVID-19.

While StatsCan said last week that Canada’s economy continued to beat Bank of Canada forecasts and grew by 2.1% in the second quarter of 2024, experts fear weak momentum heading into the fall could see the annualized GDP at 0.5% in the third quarter — far below predictions made in the central bank’s latest monetary policy report.

Canada, according to statements from Statistics Canada themselves, must generate around 50,000 new jobs every month to ensure stable employment rates.

Conservative finance critic Jasraj Singh Hallan told the Toronto Sun he blames the Liberals’ poor track record on preserving Canadian jobs.

“Canadians are barely hanging on by a thread and are struggling to house and feed themselves and their families, but Justin Trudeau is off living the high life and bragging about how Canadians never had it so good,” he said, referencing the prime minister’s late-week trip to take in opening night at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“His policies are creating carnage, but Justin Trudeau is too busy hobnobbing and taking selfies with elites and celebrities at a film festival to care.”