By Abiola Olawale
Canada has continued to experience an upward trend in the unemployment rate, as figures edged up to 6.2 per cent in May 2024, a report by Statistics Canada revealed, Friday.
The report comes after 27,000 new jobs were added in May, indicating that the population growth of Canada continues to outpace job creation.
In the report, the unemployment rate for May increased by 1.1 percentage points since April 2023.
Employment rose in May in health care and social assistance (+30,000), finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (+29,000), business, building and other support services (+19,000), as well as accommodation and food services (+13,000).
It declined in construction (-30,000), transportation and warehousing (-21,000) and utilities (-5,400).
Statistics Canada, in the report also revealed that more people were working part-time hours than full-time jobs in May.
The rate of people who were working part-time involuntarily because they couldn’t find full-time jobs or because of poor economic conditions was up 18.2 per cent in May, compared to 15.4 per cent a year earlier.
Also, the youth unemployment rate, which has been on a downward trend for a while, was virtually unchanged at 55.6 per cent, the data agency said.
While employment for young women between the ages of 15 and 24 edged up by 3.7 per cent in May, employment declined by 1.6 per cent for young men in the same demographic.
