Data Flashes

The Bottom Line:

Canada lost 18,000 jobs in April, adding to declines in earlier in the year for a cumulative loss of 112,000 in 2026 to date.

The unemployment rate ticked back up to 6.9%, matching last April’s level. Hours worked remained essentially flat, and the labour force participation rate increased. Critically, and consistent with earlier trends, rising unemployment was driven not by layoffs but by weak hiring.

Permanent layoffs in Canada continued to decline in April, sitting 10% below their October 2025 peak. Instead, unemployment rose as more workers left their jobs to seek new positions and new labour market entrants struggled to find work.

We continue to look through near-term volatility, and expect resilient domestic spending from consumers, businesses and governments will support gradual improvements in labour conditions later this year.  

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The details:

• Employment edged down 17,000 in April, more than reversing the 14,000 gain in March. Losses were concentrated in full-time employment and the goods-producing sectors, that was partially offset by gains in part-time and services sector jobs. 

• Among goods-producing sectors, job losses were widely based but led by construction (-16,000). Employment in Canada’s tariff-exposed manufacturing sector was little changed in April. 

• Services sectors as a whole added jobs in April, with losses in information, culture and recreation (-25,000) and other services (-13,000) offset by gains in business, building and support services (+22,000) as well as health care and social assistance. (+18,000). 

• On a year-over-year basis and as StatCan flagged, health care and social alone added 119,000 (or over 4%) jobs in Canada. Excluding the sector, employment contracted by 52,000. 

• Back to April, the unemployment rate ticked higher from 6.7% to 6.9% — between the recent high of 7.1% in September 2025, and the recent low of 6.5% rate in January. 

• Details underlying the increase in unemployment were less alarming – permanent layoffs remained on its trend lower while jobs leavers and labour market entrants both rose These trends are consistent with rising unemployment being driven by low hiring, and not elevated firing. 

• The labour force participation rate in April ticked slightly higher to 65%, driven by rising participation among the core 25-54 year old age groups (to 88.5% from 88.2%). The 65% reading, however, was still near the lowest rate since 1990s (outside of pandemic) due to aging population. 

• Monthly population growth continues to slow, reflecting the impact of the immigration curb. Canadian working age (aged 15+) population edged up just 9,000 in April — well-below the record 100k+ per month increases in the first half of 2024.

• In the coming months, we continue to expect the monthly population growth will turn negative following declines already seen in the quarterly population estimates. 

• Hours worked were very little changed in April after edging up 0.2% in March. Wage growth reversed back to a more normal-looking 0.2% monthly (seasonally adjusted) gain in April but larger increases earlier in the year means the year-over-year reading remains elevated, at 4.5%. 

• Among provinces, April’s rise in unemployment rate was fairly broad-based. Quebec led the decline (-43,000) bringing cumulative employment losses to 91,000 for 2026. The unemployment rate rose 0.8 percentage points to 6.2% – matching its recent peak from June 2025.

• Newfoundland & Labrador also saw employment fall (-5,200), while Saskatchewan and New Brunswick posted smaller declines. Ontario bucked the trend, adding 42,000 jobs and pushing its unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage point to 7.5%, though this only partially offset the province’s 69,000 cumulative employment loss year-to-date. Manitoba recorded the lowest unemployment rate across all provinces at 5%.

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About the author:

Claire Fan is a Senior Economist at RBC. She focuses on macroeconomic analysis and is responsible for projecting key indicators including GDP, employment and inflation for Canada and the US.

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