{"id":230460,"date":"2026-01-10T06:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T06:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/230460\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T06:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T06:53:22","slug":"unemployment-rate-climbed-to-6-8-in-december-statcan-says-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/230460\/","title":{"rendered":"Unemployment rate climbed to 6.8% in December, StatCan says – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada\u2019s unemployment rate<\/a> jumped to 6.8 per cent in December 2025 as the trade war and U.S. tariffs<\/a> continued to impact the job market.<\/p>\n

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Statistics Canada on Friday reported the Labour Force Survey<\/a> for December, which showed that a net 8,200 jobs were added in the month.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than signaling a setback, December\u2019s modest employment gain and rising unemployment rate reinforce our view that Canada\u2019s labour market recovery is underway but will likely prove choppy, with slack absorbed only gradually over time,\u201d Claire Fan, a senior economist with Royal Bank of Canada, said in a written note.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the new entrants into the labour market were not absorbed by new employment, and therefore contributed to rising unemployment rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

December\u2019s report showed that the unemployment rate was up 0.3 per cent from November\u2019s reading of 6.5 per cent<\/a>, and followed three months of job growth.<\/p>\n

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The agency says 1.6 million people were unemployed last month, which was up by 73,000 compared with November 2025. At the same time, the percentage of the population aged 15 or older that was employed in December was unchanged at 60.9 per cent.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Canadian labour market ended 2025 on a softer note, with employment steady, and the unemployment rate edging up,\u201d Brendon Bernard, senior economist at Indeed, said in a written note.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the volatility of the Labour Force Survey, a slower month following this recent strength didn\u2019t seem far-fetched. The underlying trend is probably somewhere in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

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December saw the most jobs added in health care and social assistance, followed by what the agency calls \u201cother services,\u201d which it says includes personal and repair services.<\/p>\n

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Youth aged 15 to 24 saw 27,000 jobs lost, while 33,000 jobs were added for those aged 55 and older.<\/p>\n

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Youth unemployment increased half a percentage point to 13.3 per cent.<\/p>\n

Statistics Canada says that throughout 2025, part-time employment rose at a faster pace \u2014 2.6 per cent \u2014 than full-time employment at 0.7 per cent.<\/p>\n

Jobs were lost mostly in professional, scientific and technical services, followed by accommodation and food service jobs and then utilities.<\/p>\n

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In 2025, the unemployment rate peaked at 7.1 per cent in August<\/a> and September \u2014 the highest since 2016, outside of 2020 and 2021, being pandemic years.<\/p>\n

Bernard expects the labour market in 2026 will likely see similar challenges to 2025, but a lot will depend on how the trade war evolves.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn uptick in economic growth could help deliver some job market improvement, but there\u2019s been little sign that activity will be robust enough to materially reverse the slide in employer hiring appetite \u2014 and resulting jobseeker challenges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, uncertainty to the outlook, particularly from the U.S. trade situation, looms.\u201d<\/p>\n

A report from Deloitte Canada<\/a>, released Wednesday, forecasts 2026 to see businesses pulling back on hiring plans for the first six months as tariffs are expected to slow down demand for Canadian goods and services.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s unemployment rate jumped to 6.8 per cent in December 2025 as the trade war and U.S. tariffs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,245,184,85,46,4863,77805,2844],"class_list":{"0":"post-230460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-job-market","14":"tag-labour-force-survey","15":"tag-unemployment-rate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}