{"id":330611,"date":"2025-12-06T02:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T02:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/330611\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T02:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T02:15:17","slug":"canadas-jobless-rate-falls-to-6-5-driven-by-rise-in-part-time-youth-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/330611\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s jobless rate falls to 6.5% driven by rise in part-time, youth employment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A young employee works at Cheese Magic in Toronto’s Kensington Market in 2023. Canada’s surprisingly strong employment numbers in November came from a surge in part-time work.Ammar Bowaihl\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Canadian employment surged in November for the third consecutive month as young people picked up tens of thousands of positions, with the results easily outperforming tepid predictions from economists.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s unemployment rate fell to 6.5 per cent in November from 6.9 per cent in October, Statistics Canada reported Friday in its Labour Force Survey. The decrease was fuelled by growth in part-time jobs, and a corresponding decline in the youth unemployment rate, which reached a four-year peak in September of this year.<\/p>\n

Over all, the economy added 54,000 jobs in November, bringing the cumulative increase in jobs for September through November to 181,000.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Economists were expecting the country to shed 2,500 positions last month and for the jobless rate to nudge up to 7 per cent.<\/p>\n

Employment grew by 50,000 among youth aged 15 to 24 but was relatively unchanged for core-aged people (25 to 54) and older workers. The youth unemployment rate dropped to 12.8 per cent, from 14.1 per cent in October, the lowest it has been in nearly 20 months. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe drop in youth unemployment is quite a positive and noticeable shift,\u201d said Brendon Bernard, senior economist at the job search site Indeed Canada. \u201cThe only cautionary factor here is that youth unemployment is often a more volatile number than the unemployment rate over all. It is still not exactly clear what has driven the improvement in job growth for younger people and whether it will last.\u201d <\/p>\n

Economy was on stronger footing heading into trade war, Statscan revisions show<\/a><\/p>\n

The labour market has been under duress this year because of the U.S.-driven trade war, which has resulted in layoffs in certain sectors \u2013 such as steel, aluminum and autos \u2013 and companies pausing their hiring plans as they seek clarity on trade policies. Recently, however, Statscan\u2019s Labour Force Survey has shown a strong rebound in hiring activity over the fall months.<\/p>\n

That said, the country\u2019s job growth over the past three months has been primarily concentrated in part-time work, which has increased at a significantly faster rate (2.7 per cent) than full-time employment (0.5 per cent). Employment in November was also driven by an increase in jobs in health care, social assistance, accommodation and food services \u2013 sectors that tend to hire workers on a part-time and contract basis. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In a Friday morning note, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce senior economist Andrew Grantham called November\u2019s job market data \u201ca real head-scratcher,\u201d pointing out that even though the labour market appears to be improving, it is perhaps not rebounding as quickly because of weak growth in full-time jobs. <\/p>\n

Toronto-Dominion Bank\u2019s senior economist, Andrew Hencic, had a similar perspective in a research note, saying that although the labour market is \u201cin better shape\u201d than most had thought, the situation cannot be characterized as good because of an unemployment rate that is still elevated and because job gains are concentrated in part-time work. <\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s data also showed that the participation rate in the labour force \u2013 the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who were employed or looking for work \u2013 fell slightly by 0.2 percentage points to 65.1 per cent, potentially suggesting that meagre population growth was starting to have an impact on the country\u2019s work force. <\/p>\n

\u201cA significant cool-down in population growth, and thus the labour force, is a major factor behind the reduced pressure on the jobless rate,\u201d Bank of Montreal chief economist Douglas Porter wrote in a morning note.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Spain has become an economic leader by using Ottawa\u2019s toolkit the right way<\/a><\/p>\n

After peaking at an annual rate of around 3 per cent in 2023 and 2024, Canada\u2019s population growth has slowed to approximately 1 per cent in 2025, a result of tighter immigration rules that capped the number of foreign workers and international students admitted into the country. <\/p>\n

After Friday\u2019s surprisingly strong data, the consensus among economists is that the Bank of Canada has little reason to cut rates in 2026. The central bank is almost certain to hold its key interest rate at 2.25 per cent at its next decision on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sudden pullback in the unemployment rate seriously reduces the odds of any further cuts in 2026. Indeed, the market is now dabbling with the possibility of rate hikes in 2026,\u201d Mr. Porter wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A young employee works at Cheese Magic in Toronto’s Kensington Market in 2023.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[21366,64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-330611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-appwebview","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}