The Canadian economy was virtually unchanged in June, shedding 1,400 jobs, while unemployment rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.4 per cent, Statistics Canada said on Friday.
The unemployment rate has trended upward for more than a year, with 1.4 million people unemployed in June, according to the agency's monthly Labour Force Survey.
Of those who were unemployed in May, one-fifth became employed by June, though this was a lower proportion than the pre-pandemic average for the same months.
Fewer people worked in transportation and housing and public administration, while jobs were added to the food services and accommodation sector as well as the agriculture sector.
The unemployment rate also rose among Black and South Asian Canadians between 25 and 54, the data agency noted.
For Black Canadians, the figure rose by 4.4 percentage points to 11.9 per cent from the same time last year. For South Asian Canadians, that rate rose by 1.7 percentage points to 6.7 per
cent in June. Both figures are non-seasonally adjusted.
Average hourly wages rose 5.4 per cent in June compared to the same time last year, and were up from 5.1 per cent in May.
"This report drives home the point that the Canadian labour market can simply no longer be considered tight — in fact, it is quickly tipping in the other direction," wrote BMO economist
Douglas Porter in a note.
He noted that a softer job market raises the odds of a Bank of Canada rate cut. But the central bank has also been carefully watching rising wages, which "remain the very definition of sticky
[and] will give the Bank pause," Porter wrote.
