According to the latest report from Statcan, employment rose only 7,400 in April, while the unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.9%.
The percentage of unemployed people has reached its highest level since November 2024 (that is the highest level since January 2017, excluding the pandemic year).
Although some predictions vary, they usually match the expectations of economists.
The moderate gains were mainly due to the 37,000 surge in public administration work, mainly due to the temporary employment of the federal election. The Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, Leasing and Leasing sectors also added 24K positions in April, which led to overall growth.
31k’s job decline in manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade largely offset the gains in other sectors. Employment rates also fell by 0.1 percentage point to 60.8%, the lowest level since October 2024.
The average employee wages in April fell 0.2% and rose only 3.4% compared to March year-on-year.
After the data was released, the five-year bond yields rose briefly, climbing from 2.79% to 2.80%, and then returned to 2.75% at the time of writing.
“Canadian’s economy increased jobs in April, thanks in large part to temporary jobs in the federal election, but continued to shorten under the ground and Canadian labor markets. The impact of trade tariffs appears to be passing through the economy, while trade exposed the losses of work in the sector,” TD’s Leslie Preston wrote in a research note.
As tariff impacts continue to decline, the rising odds in June fell by 25 basis points
Labor market and increasing tariff impacts have weakened expectations that Canadian banks have lowered on June 4.
Derek Holt of Scotiabank acknowledged that U.S. tariffs are responsible for the Canadian economy, but said it is unclear whether their full impact has reached the labor market.
“It is not clear whether tariffs will reach job growth,” he wrote. “For natural reasons, tariffs achieve confidence in recruitment confidence, but are eager to support jobs before the product is completely binding, while the capital-to-labor ratio that meets production needs may swing the labor force relative to more investments, which is harder to become a loss to the economic leap.”
Douglas Porter of BMO added that today’s report shows that tariffs have caused losses to Canada’s economy, increasing the possibility of lowering interest rates.
“This is the first major data reading in April, which shows that tariffs have emerged from the economy,” he noted. “This obviously increases the chances of a 25 basis point reduction in June.”
Visited 1,156 times today, and visited 1,221 times today
Derek Holt Douglas Porter Economic Data Economic Indicators Cut Forecast, Statistics Canada Canada Employment Unemployment Rate
Last modified: May 9, 2025
