Infographic 3
Highlights part 3

Infographic description

The title of the infographic is "Highlights part 3"

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

Significant labour market challenges remain for youth, students and low-wage workers

Although women were harder hit by employment losses at the beginning of the shutdown, women and men experienced similar total losses by April. When the rebound began in May, employment increased twice as fast among men compared with women. Historically, the unemployment rate among men is typically higher than among women, and also tends to increase more among men during recessions. In June, employment increased faster among women (+6.1%) than men (+5.5%). Including May gains, men's employment reached 92.3% of pre-COVID levels compared with 89.2% for women. In June, the unemployment rate for women (12.7%) was slightly higher than the rate for men (12.1%), mostly due to a higher proportion of women on temporary layoff.

Every summer, many students temporarily enter the labour market. In May, students started the summer with an unemployment rate of 40.3% and with employment down 39.7% compared with May 2019. Employment among students rose more than usual from May to June, suggesting the summer job market is improving. However, employment was still down 23.0% compared with a year earlier, and their unemployment rate was 33.1%.

From February to April, employment among low-wage employees fell by 38.1%, compared with a decline of 12.7% for all other paid employees (not adjusted for seasonality). In June, employment among low-wage workers had recovered to 78.8% of the February level, compared to 96.7% for other paid employees (not adjusted for seasonality).

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