Finance, Real Estate Job Cuts Push Up Canada’s Unemployment Rate
- Jobless rate is highest in 22 months as firms reduce staff
- Total hours worked plunge by most since early last year
A worker picks products with a lift in the warehouse of a Hillside Canadian Tire store in Victoria, British Columbia.
Photographer: James MacDonald/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Canada’s labor market beat expectations with jobs gains, but a rising unemployment rate and a drop in hours worked show mounting economic weakness — especially in the finance and real estate sectors.
The country added 25,000 jobs in November, while the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 5.8%, the highest since January 2022, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa. The jobs figures topped expectations for a gain of 14,000 positions but matched the expected jobless rate, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.