Labour Force Survey, June 2023
Released: 2023-07-07
Highlights
Employment increased by 60,000 (+0.3%) in June, driven by gains in full-time work (+110,000; +0.7%).
The unemployment rate rose to 5.4% (+0.2 percentage points), as more people searched for work.
Employment gains in June were concentrated among young men aged 15 to 24 (+31,000) and men aged 25 to 54 (+31,000). Employment among women of all age groups was little changed in June.
Employment increased in Ontario (+56,000), Nova Scotia (+3,600), and Newfoundland and Labrador (+2,300) in June, while it declined in Prince Edward Island (-2,400). There was little variation in the other provinces.
Employment rose in wholesale and retail trade (+33,000), manufacturing (+27,000), health care and social assistance (+21,000) and transportation and warehousing (+10,000). Meanwhile, declines were recorded in construction (-14,000), educational services (-14,000) and agriculture (-6,000).
Average hourly wages rose 4.2% (+$1.32 to $33.12) on a year-over-year basis in June, following an increase of 5.1% in May (not seasonally adjusted).
Total hours worked were virtually unchanged in June and were up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis.
Employment in June driven by full-time work, follows little change in May
Employment rose by 60,000 (+0.3%) in June, following little change in May. The increase in June was the largest since January 2023. Employment growth had moderated from February to May (averaging 20,000 per month), following strong growth from October 2022 to January 2023 (averaging 79,000 per month).
The employment rate—the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are employed—edged up 0.1 percentage points to 62.2% in June.
Employment gains in June were all in full-time work (+110,000; +0.7%), as the number of people working part-time fell (-50,000; -1.4%).
Chart 1
Employment increases in June, driven by full-time work
Year-over-year hourly wage growth decelerates in June
Average hourly wages rose 4.2% (+$1.32 to $33.12) on a year-over-year basis in June (not seasonally adjusted). This was the slowest year-over-year growth in average hourly wages since May 2022. From February to May 2023, year-over-year growth in average hourly wages had hovered between 5.1% and 5.4%.
In the 12 months to June 2023, average hourly wages grew 4.7% to $30.95 among women, and grew 3.6% to $35.21 among men.
Employment among core-age men rises for third consecutive month
Among core-aged men (25 to 54 years old), employment increased by 31,000 (+0.5%) in June, bringing the cumulative gain since March to 92,000. The employment rate of core-aged men was 88.2% in June, up 0.4 percentage points since April.
Employment among core-aged women was little changed in June, as full-time work increased and part-time work edged down. Employment growth among core-aged women has slowed in recent months, averaging 7,000 per month since February 2023, compared with 24,000 per month from September 2022 to January 2023. The employment rate of core-aged women held steady at 81.7% in June, and is still down from the record-high of 82.2% observed in January.
Employment for young men aged 15 to 24 rose by 31,000 (+2.3%) in June, offsetting a decline of 35,000 recorded in May. Among young women, employment was little changed in June after falling by 43,000 in May. The employment rate for young men rose 1.0 percentage points to 57.9% in June, while for young women it was little changed at 58.1% in the month.
Employment was virtually unchanged in June for both men and women aged 55 and older.
Employment increases in wholesale and retail trade, health care and social assistance, manufacturing and transportation and warehousing
Employment increased in wholesale and retail trade (+33,000; +1.1%) in June, following little change in May. Employment in the industry has generally trended up in recent months, with a net increase of 98,000 from December 2022 to June 2023. According to the latest data from the Monthly Retail Trade Survey, retail sales increased 1.1% to $65.9 billion in April and an advance estimate indicated that retail sales had increased 0.5% in May.
Employment in health care and social assistance increased by 21,000 (+0.8%) in June, following three consecutive months of little change. According to the latest results from the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey, job vacancies have remained at or near record highs in health care and social assistance in recent months, despite falling in nearly all other sectors. On a year-over-year basis, employment in health care and social assistance rose by 65,000 (+2.5%) in June and total hours worked were up 2.3% over the same period.
Employment in manufacturing increased by 27,000 (+1.5%) in June, building on a gain of 13,000 in May (+0.7%). This was the largest monthly gain for the industry since September 2020. On a year-over-year basis, employment in manufacturing was up 2.7% in June (+49,000), outpacing employment growth across all industries (+2.4%).
The number of people working in transportation and warehousing increased by 10,000 (+1.0%) in June, following little change in May and cumulative increases of 57,000 in March and April. On a year-over-year basis, employment in transportation and warehousing was up by 52,000 in June (+5.3%), also outpacing growth across all industries.
In construction, employment decreased by 14,000 (-0.8%) in June, following little change in April and May. On a year-over-year basis, employment in the industry was little changed in June.
Employment in educational services fell 14,000 (-0.9%) in June, the first monthly decline since August 2022. The decreases in this industry were primarily concentrated in Alberta (-11,000; -6.5%).
Chart 2
Employment up in several industries, led by wholesale and retail trade
Unemployment rate increases to highest level in over a year
The unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 5.4% in June, following a similar increase (+0.2 percentage points) in May. The increase brought the rate to its highest level since February 2022 (when it was also 5.4%). There were 1.1 million people unemployed in June, an increase of 54,000 (+4.9%) in the month.
Despite the successive increases in May and June, the unemployment rate in Canada remained below its pre-COVID-19 pandemic average of 5.7% recorded in the 12 months to February 2020.
The unemployment rate for core-aged men increased 0.2 percentage points to 4.4% in June, the first increase since November 2022. Meanwhile, the participation rate of core-aged men rose 0.2 percentage points to 92.2% in June. For core-aged women, the unemployment rate was 4.4% in June—the same as their male counterparts, and little changed in the month.
Among women aged 55 and older, the unemployment rate rose from 3.6% in May to 4.3% in June, as employment held steady and the number of job searchers rose. The unemployment rate of women aged 55 and older had previously fallen from 5.0% in August 2022 to a record-low 3.5% in April 2023.
The unemployment rate of men aged 55 and older has generally varied little since the fall of 2022. It held steady at 4.4% in June.
Following an increase of 0.7 percentage points in May, the unemployment rate of young women aged 15 to 24 rose by a full percentage point in June to reach 10.5%, its highest level since October 2022. Among young men aged 15 to 24, the unemployment rate was little changed at 12.5% in June.
Chart 3
Unemployment rate rises to highest level since February 2022
Fewer students working at the beginning of the summer
From May to August, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) collects labour market data on youth aged 15 to 24 who were full-time students in March and who intend to return to school full time in September. The results are not seasonally adjusted.
The employment rate among female returning students aged 15 to 24 was 53.4% in June, down from a recent high for the month of June recorded in 2022 (56.7%). In comparison, the pre-pandemic average for the month from 2017 to 2019 was 54.3%.
The decline in June follows a slow start to the summer job season for young women in May. On a year-over-year basis, the employment rate of female returning students aged 15 to 24 had declined 4.4 percentage points to 49.1% in May 2023.
The employment rate among male returning students aged 15 to 24 was little changed at 49.9% on a year-over-year basis in June. The rate was slightly above the pre-pandemic average of 48.0% for the month from 2017 to 2019.
Employment increases in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador
Employment increased in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador in June, while there was a decline in Prince Edward Island. All other provinces recorded little change. For further information on key province and industry level labour market indicators, see "Labour Force Survey in brief: Interactive app."
Following a decline in May, employment in Ontario resumed its upward trend in June (+56,000; +0.7%), with overall gains totalling 236,000 (+3.1%) since September 2022. The participation rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 65.9% in June and the unemployment rate increased to 5.7% (+0.2 percentage points) as the number of people searching for work edged up. In the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), employment increased by 42,000 (+1.1%).
Employment in Nova Scotia increased by 3,600 (+0.7%) in June, the first notable increase since January 2023. An increase in the number of people in search of work pushed the unemployment rate up 0.7 percentage points to 6.4%.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, there were 2,300 (+1.0%) more people employed in June, partly offsetting a decline of 4,200 in the previous month. The unemployment rate fell 1.4 percentage points to 8.8%, the lowest since comparable data became available in 1976.
In Prince Edward Island, employment fell by 2,400 (-2.7%) in June, following little change in May and partially offsetting cumulative increases of 5,600 in February, March and April. The unemployment rate in the province rose by a full percentage point to 8.2% in June.
In Quebec, employment was little changed for the fifth consecutive month in June. With more people in the labour force searching for work, the unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points to 4.4% in June.
Quarterly update for the territories
In Yukon, the employment rate increased 1.8 percentage points to 70.6% in the second quarter of 2023. It was little changed over the same period in the Northwest Territories (70.5%) and in Nunavut (54.6%).
Sustainable Development Goals
On January 1, 2016, the world officially began implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—the United Nations' transformative plan of action that addresses urgent global challenges over the next 15 years. The plan is based on 17 specific sustainable development goals.
The Labour Force Survey is an example of how Statistics Canada supports the reporting on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. This release will be used in helping to measure the following goals:
Note to readers
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates for June are for the week of June 11 to 17, 2023.
The LFS estimates are based on a sample and are therefore subject to sampling variability. As a result, monthly estimates will show more variability than trends observed over longer time periods. For more information, see "Interpreting Monthly Changes in Employment from the Labour Force Survey."
This analysis focuses on differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 68% confidence level.
LFS estimates at the Canada level do not include the territories.
The LFS estimates are the first in a series of labour market indicators released by Statistics Canada, which includes indicators from programs such as the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH); Employment Insurance Statistics; and the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey. For more information on the conceptual differences between employment measures from the LFS and those from the SEPH, refer to section 8 of the Guide to the Labour Force Survey (71-543-G).
Face-to-face personal interviewing resumed in November 2022. Telephone interviews continued to be conducted by interviewers working from their homes rather than Statistics Canada's call centres, as they have since March 2020. Over 43,000 interviews were completed in June and in-depth data quality evaluations conducted each month confirm that the LFS continues to produce an accurate portrait of Canada's labour market.
The employment rate is the number of employed people as a percentage of the population aged 15 and older. The rate for a particular group (for example, youths aged 15 to 24) is the number employed in that group as a percentage of the population for that group.
The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed people as a percentage of the labour force (employed and unemployed).
The participation rate is the number of employed and unemployed people as a percentage of the population aged 15 and older.
Full-time employment consists of persons who usually work 30 hours or more per week at their main or only job.
Part-time employment consists of persons who usually work less than 30 hours per week at their main or only job.
Total hours worked refers to the number of hours actually worked at the main job by the respondent during the reference week, including paid and unpaid hours. These hours reflect temporary decreases or increases in work hours (for example, hours lost due to illness, vacation, holidays or weather; or more hours worked due to overtime).
In general, month-to-month or year-to-year changes in the number of people employed in an age group reflect the net effect of two factors: (1) the number of people who changed employment status between reference periods, and (2) the number of employed people who entered or left the age group (including through aging, death or migration) between reference periods.
Information on racialized groups
Data on "racialized groups" are derived from the "visible minority" variable. "Visible minority" refers to whether or not a person belongs to one of the visible minority groups defined by the Employment Equity Act. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese.
Seasonal adjustment
Unless otherwise stated, this release presents seasonally adjusted estimates, which facilitate comparisons by removing the effects of seasonal variations. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
Next release
The next release of the LFS will be on August 4, 2023. July 2023 data will reflect labour market conditions during the week of July 9 to 15, 2023.
Products
More information about the concepts and use of the Labour Force Survey is available online in the Guide to the Labour Force Survey (71-543-G).
The product "Labour Force Survey in brief: Interactive app" (14200001) is also available. This interactive visualization application provides seasonally adjusted estimates by province, sex, age group and industry.
The product "Labour Market Indicators, by province and census metropolitan area, seasonally adjusted" (71-607-X) is also available. This interactive dashboard provides customizable access to key labour market indicators.
The product "Labour Market Indicators, by province, territory and economic region, unadjusted for seasonality" (71-607-X) is also available. This dynamic web application provides access to labour market indicators for Canada, provinces, territories and economic regions.
The product Labour Force Survey: Public Use Microdata File (71M0001X) is also available. This public use microdata file contains non-aggregated data for a wide variety of variables collected from the Labour Force Survey. The data have been modified to ensure that no individual or business is directly or indirectly identified. This product is for users who prefer to do their own analysis by focusing on specific subgroups in the population or by cross-classifying variables that are not in our catalogued products.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
- Date modified: