Canada lost 17,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate rose to 5.2%

Young people in particular suffered from a decline in employment in May, with 77,000 jobs lost among workers between the ages of 15 and 24. However, this decline was offset by the creation of 63 thousand job opportunities among the elderly between the ages of 25 and 54 years.

The job losses pushed the country’s youth unemployment rate up by 1.1 percentage points, from 10.7% last May.

Despite high inflation and the nine major interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada since 2022 in an effort to slow an overheating economy, this is the first time the unemployment rate has increased in Canada since August 2022.

The declines recorded in May mainly affected business services, construction support services and professional, scientific and technical services.

Manufacturing and utility jobs increased during this period.

In Quebec, employment remained stable in May, even marking a slight decline in the province’s unemployment rate, which rose from 4.1% in April to 4% in May. 19,000 jobs were created in the Montreal area in particular. Employment also rose in Manitoba, where there were 8,200 additional jobs last month.

It was Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador that mainly experienced the notable declines in employment in May. Statistics Canada says other provinces have seen little change.

In Ontario, there were 24,000 fewer jobs in May than in April and a 0.6 point increase in the unemployment rate, which was 5.5%.

Nova Scotia lost 5,200 jobs during this period. but, With Nova Scotia’s population lower in the workforce, the province’s unemployment rate fell 0.6 percentage point to 5.7%.Nuance Statistics Canada.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, employment ended in May with a negative result of 4,200 jobs.