Employment rose by 64,000 (+0.3%) in September, following an increase of 40,000 (+0.2%) in August. The employment rate—the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are employed—rose 0.1 percentage points to 62.0%, offsetting a decline in the previous month. The unemployment rate was unchanged in September and stood at 5.5% for the third consecutive month. Employment increased among core-aged (aged 25 to 54 years) women (+37,000; +0.6%) and men (+32,000; +0.5%), while it was little changed for youth aged 15 to 24 and people aged 55 and older. There were more people employed in educational services (+66,000; ... (full story)

The average hourly wage for permanent employees rose 5.3% from September 2022, up from the 5.2% annual rise in August. The acceleration in wage growth is likely to worry the central bank, which has stressed that it will be hard to fully curb inflation if wages maintain their current patterns of rising between 4% and 5% annually. Canada's labor market, supported by strong immigration, has been resilient even as the Bank of Canada raised its key overnight rate 10 times since March 2022 to cool the economy. "The upward trend in employment continues to occur in the context of the highest rate of population growth since ... (full story)