The Canadian economy was virtually unchanged in June, shedding 1,400 jobs, while unemployment rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.4 per cent, Statistics Canada said on Friday.
Employment fell for young men between the ages of 15 and 24, with 13,000 jobs lost, while increasing for women aged 25 to 54 by 19,000 jobs.
Fewer people worked in transportation and housing (which shed 12,000 jobs) and public administration (which lost 8,800). Meanwhile, 17,000 jobs were added to the food services and accommodation sector, and 12,000 were added to agriculture.
Average hourly wages rose 5.4 per cent in June compared to the same time last year, and were up from 5.1 per cent in May.
Tricky summer job market for students
The summer job market is getting trickier to navigate for some students.
The employment rate among returning students — those trying to find summer jobs before returning to school full-time in the fall — fell to 46.8 per cent.
That marks the lowest rate since June 1998, with the first summer of the pandemic (June 2020) being an exception. It’s also a “notable decline” from the 53.7 per cent high reported in June 2022, the data agency said.
The unemployment rate was 15.9 percent for these students, marking an increase of 3.8 percentage points from a year earlier. The data shows that students are having more difficulty finding work in the summer job market.
More to come.