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Side menu bar Canadian Labour Market at a Glance 71-222-XWE Table of contents Objective and data sources Glossary References More information PDF version 		Table of contents > Section A - Labour market overview >

Participation rates

Participation rates remained at historical highs throughout 2003

  • The participation rate measures the supply of labour (the employed and the unemployed combined) relative to the size of the working-age population. In other words, it is the share of the working-age population that is engaged in the labour market.

  • In 2003, about 17.0 million people were in the labour market. As a result of more people working and more people looking for work, the participation rate that year increased 0.6 percentage point from 2002 to reach 67.5%, the highest rate on record. The participation rate has been increasing every year since 1996.

  • From 1976 to 1989, the participation rate followed an upward trend, peaking at 67.2% in 1989. As a result of labour market weakness in the first half of the 1990s, the participation rate then fell for seven consecutive years. This was a long decline compared with the single-year dip during the recession of the 1980s.


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Date modified: 2004-11-17 Important Notices