Canada’s labor market suffered a sharp setback in February, with employment plunging by -83.9k, far worse than expectations for a modest gain of around 10k. The decline marks a significant deterioration in labor conditions.
The drop in employment was broad-based across sectors. Services-producing industries shed around -56k jobs, while goods-producing sectors lost roughly -28k positions. The deterioration pushed the unemployment rate higher to 6.7% from 6.5%, while the participation rate edged down slightly to 64.9%.
Despite the sharp decline in employment, wage growth accelerated noticeably. Average hourly wages rose 3.9% yoy in February, up from 3.3% in January.
