The Canadian-born workforce is also facing more pronounced challenges compared to newcomers, driving roughly 60% of the unemployment rate increase in the last year.
Varying labour market trends can be seen among age groups as well. Late-career workers (aged 45-plus) are experiencing the most acute softening, accounting for nearly 40% of the unemployment rate increase since a year ago.
Core career workers (aged 35-44) accounted for a quarter (25%), while early career workers (aged 15-24) contributed a slightly larger 31% to the increase. Early-to-mid career workers (aged 25-34), however, have contributed significantly less (9%) to the overall unemployment rate increase.
Growing labour market weakness
Canada’s labour market softened in April, with job vacancies falling by 16,800—or 3.2%—to 501,300, marking the first notable monthly decline in nearly a year, according to StatCan. As a result, the national job vacancy rate dipped to 2.8%, down from 2.9% in March. That figure represents the lowest rate since October 2017, according to the report.
“Growing labour market weakness among Canadian-born and core-to-late career-aged workers likely stems from the concentrated nature of industry-specific softness. Indeed, goods-producing sectors employ a disproportionately high share of late career-aged workers, making them particularly vulnerable to current economic headwinds,” says Battaglia.