Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.4% in August 2026, unchanged from the previous month and in line with market expectations. The number of unemployed people increased by 4.8 thousand to 1.455 million.
At the same time, net employment declined by 41.7 thousand to 12.173 million, sharply missing forecasts that had called for a 15 thousand increase. A significant share of the decline in net employment reflected a 36.8 thousand contraction in the labor force, which pushed the participation rate down by 0.1 percentage point to 65% and helped prevent the headline unemployment rate from rising.
Within key demographic groups, the unemployment rate for core-aged women fell by 0.2 percentage points to 5%. In contrast, the youth unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 12.9%.
