Ontario Construction News staff writer
The construction sector added 3,300 jobs across Canada in August, bringing the total number of workers to 1,566,700. This 0.2 per cent increase from July contrasts with broader employment trends reported by Statistics Canada.
Overall, Canada’s workforce grew by 22,000, or 0.1 per cent, last month. However, the employment rate fell slightly to 60.8 per cent, and the unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points to 6.6 per cent.
Year over year, the employment rate dropped by 1.2 percentage points in August. This decline is attributed to employment growth lagging behind the increase in the population aged 15 and older.
Employment gains in the past year were most notable among those in the core working age. Employment rose for men (+207,000; +3.0 per cent) and women (+115,000; +1.8 per cent) aged 25 to 54, while figures for youth (15 to 24 years old) and those aged 55 and older remained relatively unchanged.
Excluding the unusual data from 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, August’s unemployment rate of 6.6 per cent is the highest since May 2017. Since April 2023, the unemployment rate has steadily increased by 1.5 percentage points.