Infographic 1
Highlights part 1

Infographic description

The title of the infographic is "Highlights part 1"

This is a text box that presents the highlights of the release.

Employment continues to rebound in August

From February to April, employment fell by more than 3 million. Employment rose by 246,000 (+1.4%) in August, compared with 419,000 (+2.4%) in July. Combined with gains of 1.2 million in May and June, this brought employment to within 1.1 million (-5.7%) of its pre-COVID February level.

From February to April, losses in part-time work were significantly heavier than full-time employment declines (-29.6% compared with -12.5%). All of the August employment increases were in full-time work, which rose by 206,000, while the number of part-time workers was little changed. Compared with 12 months earlier, full-time employment was down 5.4% in August, while part-time work was down 5.1%.

When the rebound in employment began in May, employment increased twice as fast among men as it did among women. Employment rose at a faster pace among women than men (+1.8% compared with +1.0%) for the third consecutive month in August. Employment reached 96.6% of its February level among core-aged men (aged 25 to 54) and 95.6% among core-aged women. Youth (aged 15 to 24) were the furthest from their pre-COVID employment level, with employment for both young men and young women being at 84.7% of February levels.

After reaching record lows in 2019, the unemployment rate surged from 5.6% in February to a record high of 13.7% in May. The unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points to 10.2% in August.

Unemployment remains high for Arab, Black and Southeast Asian Canadians

In July, the national unemployment rate masked significant differences across population groups, with Arab, Black and Southeast Asian Canadians having above-average unemployment rates. In August, Arab (17.9%), Black (17.6%) and Southeast Asian (16.6%) Canadians continued to have significantly higher unemployment rates than Canadians who are not members of groups designated as visible minorities and who did not identify as Indigenous (9.4%) (not seasonally adjusted).

Source(s): Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey.