Moving2Canada Jobs Report: August 2018

With a loss of 52,000 jobs, unemployment in Canada edged up to 6% in August. Though full-time work rose, part-time employment declined significantly.

The Canadian job market was impacted mainly by a sharp decrease in employment in Ontario, without significant gains in other provinces to offset the loss.

Immigrants to Canada faced a very slight increase of 0.2 percentage points in their unemployment rate in August 2018, staying above the national average. Long-term settled permanent immigrants, at 5.5%, still enjoy a lower unemployment rate than the national rate though, emphasizing how well immigrant workers continue to integrate into the Canadian labour force.

Demographically, employment decreased for women and men aged 55 and older, while little changed for other demographic groups.

Year-on-year employment increased by 172,000, or 0.9%, compared to August 2017, with hours worked up by 1.6% overall.

Student summer employment

During summer, youth aged 15 to 24 who were attending school full time during term and who intend to return to school in the fall are joining the workforce. Their unemployment rate stood at 13.4% in August 2018, a year-on-year decrease of 0.9 percentage points.

Canada Job Market August 2018 update

New Canadian employment figures are released each month, and you’ll always find the latest data here on our Moving2Canada Jobs Report.

The data below comes from the Labour Force Survey, produced by Statistics Canada.

• To view jobs in Canada, visit our Jobs Board
• Visit our Resume Format in Canada page for help with your resume
• Practical advice for finding jobs in Canada
• For construction jobs in Canada, visit Outpost Recruitment

Decline in Ontario Job Market

Across the Canadian provinces, employment grew in Alberta (+16,000), British Columbia (+10,000), Newfoundland and Labrador (+1,100), Nova Scotia (+1,200), Manitoba (+2,600) and Saskatchewan (+1,400). This slight growth across many provinces could not offset the labour force decrease in Ontario (-80,000), where the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 5.7%. After single-handedly leading jobs growth in Canada for two months, Ontario proved to be the main reason for the decrease in August 2018.

British Columbia remains the province with the lowest unemployment rate (5.3%), closely followed by Quebec (5.6%) and Ontario (5.7%). Newfoundland and Labrador remains the province with the highest unemployment rate, but August showed a decrease of 1 percentage point.

Canada Job Market: Industry perspective

August Canada job market declines mainly hit the professional, scientific and technical services (-22,000), wholesale and retail trade (-20,000) and construction (-16,000) industries.

Employment grew by 10,000 in business, building and other support services.

Looking to work for a startup? Despite the job decline in August 2018, Ontario remains a talent magnet. According to LinkedIn, job-seekers are still hot on Ontario, with 21 of the top 25 startups most sought-after by job seekers are based in the province. Of these,18 are headquartered in Toronto. Many have recently completed funding rounds and are looking to hire heavily. Check the list out in the LinkedIn Top Startups 2018 report and prepare to get in touch using our Networking 101 for Canada.

Wages across industries grew by 2.9%, a slight decline from the previous month.

Settled immigrants integrate well

Unemployment among the permanently settled immigrant population went up slightly, by 0.2 points to 6.3% in August 2018.

In particular, newer immigrants to Canada (those who landed within the past five years) face a harder time finding a job. Unemployment among this group rose to 10.3% in August, although on a year-to-year comparison with  August 2017 it still fell by 1 percentage point.

Settled immigrants fared significantly better, with those in Canada for five to 10 years (6.5%) and 10 years or longer (5.5%) showing steady employment numbers. Generally, permanent immigrants to Canada integrate very well into the workforce.

The unemployment rates by region of origin have changed little in August 2018, although immigrants from North America (5.4%) saw an increase of 0.6 percentage points. European (+0.2pc), African (+0.3pc) and Asian (+0.3pc) immigrants faced minor increases in unemployment, while unemployment among Latin American (-0.2pc) immigrants improved slightly.

Notice: Immigrant unemployment rates are not available in seasonally adjusted statistics.