Canada’s labour market struggles in Q3

Industries like education, healthcare, and arts and recreation saw relatively strong growth, while manufacturing, retail, and food and accommodation services lagged.

“Education, arts, and entertainment, and healthcare have grown relatively quickly of late,” he says, yet several key service sectors “have dropped over the past six months.”

Labour market: ‘We’re waiting for a turning point’

The unemployment rate mirrored this slower employment trend, rising from 6.4% in June to 6.5% in September. Bernard points out that this trend reflects “a broader trend that has emerged over the past two years — the labour market’s deterioration has been relatively slow,” noting that “the unemployment rate isn’t especially high compared to previous recessions.”

However, he adds that this decline is unlike previous economic downturns. “Joblessness spiked considerably higher during both the 1981 and 2008 downturns,” he writes, but today, “we’re still waiting for a turning point.”