Open this photo in gallery:
A young employee works at Cheese Magic in Toronto’s Kensington Market in 2023. Canada’s surprisingly strong employment numbers in November came from a surge in part-time work.Ammar Bowaihl/The Globe and Mail
Canadian employment surged in November for the third consecutive month as young people picked up tens of thousands of positions, with the results easily outperforming tepid predictions from economists.
The country’s unemployment rate fell to 6.5 per cent in November from 6.9 per cent in October, Statistics Canada reported Friday in its Labour Force Survey. The decrease was fuelled by growth in part-time jobs, and a corresponding decline in the youth unemployment rate, which reached a four-year peak in September of this year.
Over all, the economy added 54,000 jobs in November, bringing the cumulative increase in jobs for September through November to 181,000.
Economists were expecting the country to shed 2,500 positions last month and for the jobless rate to nudge up to 7 per cent.
Employment grew by 50,000 among youth aged 15 to 24 but was relatively unchanged for core-aged people (25 to 54) and older workers. The youth unemployment rate dropped to 12.8 per cent, from 14.1 per cent in October, the lowest it has been in nearly 20 months.
“The drop in youth unemployment is quite a positive and noticeable shift,” said Brendon Bernard, senior economist at the job search site Indeed Canada. “The only cautionary factor here is that youth unemployment is often a more volatile number than the unemployment rate over all. It is still not exactly clear what has driven the improvement in job growth for younger people and whether it will last.”
Economy was on stronger footing heading into trade war, Statscan revisions show
The labour market has been under duress this year because of the U.S.-driven trade war, which has resulted in layoffs in certain sectors – such as steel, aluminum and autos – and companies pausing their hiring plans as they seek clarity on trade policies. Recently, however, Statscan’s Labour Force Survey has shown a strong rebound in hiring activity over the fall months.
That said, the country’s job growth over the past three months has been primarily concentrated in part-time work, which has increased at a significantly faster rate (2.7 per cent) than full-time employment (0.5 per cent). Employment in November was also driven by an increase in jobs in health care, social assistance, accommodation and food services – sectors that tend to hire workers on a part-time and contract basis.
In a Friday morning note, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce senior economist Andrew Grantham called November’s job market data “a real head-scratcher,” pointing out that even though the labour market appears to be improving, it is perhaps not rebounding as quickly because of weak growth in full-time jobs.
Toronto-Dominion Bank’s senior economist, Andrew Hencic, had a similar perspective in a research note, saying that although the labour market is “in better shape” than most had thought, the situation cannot be characterized as good because of an unemployment rate that is still elevated and because job gains are concentrated in part-time work.
Friday’s data also showed that the participation rate in the labour force – the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who were employed or looking for work – fell slightly by 0.2 percentage points to 65.1 per cent, potentially suggesting that meagre population growth was starting to have an impact on the country’s work force.
“A significant cool-down in population growth, and thus the labour force, is a major factor behind the reduced pressure on the jobless rate,” Bank of Montreal chief economist Douglas Porter wrote in a morning note.
Opinion: Spain has become an economic leader by using Ottawa’s toolkit the right way
After peaking at an annual rate of around 3 per cent in 2023 and 2024, Canada’s population growth has slowed to approximately 1 per cent in 2025, a result of tighter immigration rules that capped the number of foreign workers and international students admitted into the country.
After Friday’s surprisingly strong data, the consensus among economists is that the Bank of Canada has little reason to cut rates in 2026. The central bank is almost certain to hold its key interest rate at 2.25 per cent at its next decision on Wednesday.
“The sudden pullback in the unemployment rate seriously reduces the odds of any further cuts in 2026. Indeed, the market is now dabbling with the possibility of rate hikes in 2026,” Mr. Porter wrote.
