January 16, 2025
Canada added far more jobs than expected in December, defying concerns about the state of the economy and helping to push the unemployment rate down to 6.7 per cent.
The economy gained 91,000 jobs, with 40,000 coming in the public sector, 27,000 in the private sector and 24,000 from self-employment, according to figures released Friday by Statistics Canada. Of the new positions, 56,000 were categorized as full-time.
It was the third positive jobs reading in four months, and marked the highest single-month increase since January 2023, when the economy added 150,000 jobs. The increase in self-employment was the first since February of 2024.
The data beat expectations set by most economists, who were expecting the jobless rate to rise to 6.9 per cent with a more modest gain of 25,000 jobs.
“This was as positive a labour market report as we could expect,” said James Orlando, senior economist with Toronto-Dominion Bank, in a note to clients. “Despite all the negative talk on Canada’s economy, the country keeps adding jobs.”
The December gains drove the unemployment rate down from 6.8 per cent a month earlier, though it remains a full percentage point higher than last year.
“The Canadian job market ended 2024 on an upbeat note, in line with our view that the broader economy was getting up off the mat,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist at the Bank of Montreal, in a note to clients. “Having said that, the Labour Force Survey is notoriously volatile, and we certainly can’t pin too much on a single reading.”
