In October, Canada gained 66,600 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage points to 6.9 per cent. (Photo by Mike Campbell/NurPhoto via Getty Images) · NurPhoto via Getty Images
Canada’s labour market added a net 53,600 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to 6.5 per cent, according to Statistics Canada data released Friday.
Economists had expected the Canadian economy to shed 5,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to rise back up to seven per cent, according to consensus estimates published by CIBC, making November the third consecutive month of unexpectedly strong hiring.
“Coupled with inflation that has been running a tad hot of late, this quashes any lingering prospect of a near-term Bank of Canada rate cut,” BMO chief economist Douglas Porter wrote. “There really wasn’t much doubt that the Bank will be on hold next week, but the series of good employment gains, and — maybe more importantly — the sudden pullback in the unemployment rate seriously reduce the odds of any further cuts in 2026.”
Nonetheless, Porter and other economists write that the November data still had numerous signs of labour weakness beneath the surface. Employment growth was driven entirely by part-time work, with full-time positions falling by about 9,000 while part-time jobs rose by 63,000. This, CIBC economist Andrew Grantham says, suggests “the composition wasn’t quite as strong as the headline.” Economists made a similar observation about October’s surprise addition of 66,600 jobs, which was also dominated by part-time work.
Grantham also notes the 0.2 percentage point drop in the participation rate — a measure of the proportion of the population working or actively seeking work — which he says “flattered” the unemployment rate. Still, the November data were “still clearly much better than expected,” Grantham acknowledges.
“While we doubt that the labour market is quite as strong as today’s headline data suggests… today’s release is still supportive of our assumption that the Bank of Canada’s rate-cutting cycle has ended,” he wrote.
TD senior economist Andrew Hencic similarly writes that the job market “is in better shape than most had thought,” but cautions that the gains “can’t be characterized as good” given their concentration in part-time work and the still-elevated jobless rate.
November marked the third straight monthly increase in employment, bringing total gains since September to 181,000 — a sharp reversal from the flat job market seen from January through August. The job-finding rate reached 19.6 per cent, slightly above last year’s level of 18.6 per cent, with Statistics Canada noting that “increases in the unemployment rate earlier in the year had been associated with lower job-finding rates.”
Job growth last month was concentrated among youth aged 15 to 24 (50,000 jobs added). Youth unemployment fell to 12.8 per cent — down more than a full percentage point from October after hitting a post-2010 high in September (excluding the pandemic months). Employment among core-aged workers was little changed, echoing October’s pattern.
“The jobless rate for Canadians under 25 is still elevated compared to other groups, but this was a positive development,” Brendon Bernard, senior economist at Indeed Canada, said in an emailed statement.
“If the improvement continues, even amid an otherwise lukewarm economic situation, it could be a sign that the slowdown in population growth from abroad is contributing to improving youth employment rates, but more data is needed to confirm the trend.”
By industry, the most jobs were added in healthcare and social assistance (up 46,000, or 1.6 per cent), accommodation and food services (up 14,000 or 1.2 per cent) and natural resources (up 11,000 or 3.4 per cent). The increases in accommodation and food services were the first since January. Wholesale and retail trade, by contrast, shed 34,000 jobs, nearly reversing October’s gain in the sector.
Regionally, employment rose most notably in Alberta (29,000 jobs added), where the unemployment rate dropped 1.3 percentage points to 6.5 per cent — the province’s lowest since March 2024. New Brunswick and Manitoba also posted gains, while Ontario and Quebec saw little net employment change. Ontario’s unemployment rate, however, dipped to 7.3 per cent, largely because fewer people searched for work.
Average hourly wages were up 3.6 per cent from November 2024, rising $1.27 to $37.
John MacFarlane is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on X @jmacf.
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