Canada's Job Market Rebounds: 14,000 New Jobs Added in March, Unemployment Holds Steady at 6.7%

Canada's Labour Market Shows Modest Recovery in March

Statistics Canada reported a modest rebound in the labour market in March, following two consecutive months of job losses at the start of the year. Employers collectively added 14,000 jobs in March, which was roughly in line with economists' expectations. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.7 per cent.

Key Sector Performance

There was little variation in employment across age demographics, full- and part-time work, and the private and public sectors in March. Growth was led by the "other services" category, which includes repair and maintenance work in the economy. This sector added 15,000 jobs, offsetting a similar-sized decline in February.

Other sectors posting job gains included:

• Professional, scientific, and technical services
• Natural resources industry
• Tariff-sensitive manufacturing

However, the finance, insurance, real estate, and leasing sector led declines with a loss of 11,000 positions, marking its first significant monthly decline since November 2023.

Regional and Wage Insights

In British Columbia, a loss of 19,000 jobs in March followed a similar loss in February, pushing the province's unemployment rate up to 6.7 per cent. This is the highest level for the province's jobless rate in about a decade, outside the COVID-19 pandemic.

Average hourly wages across the country rose 4.7 per cent year-over-year, a jump from 3.9 per cent in February and the fastest pace since October 2024. StatCan noted that some of this increase is due to the "composition of employment," meaning the economy isn't adding or maintaining as many lower-paying jobs that typically pull down the wage growth average. Controlling for compositional factors leaves average annual wage growth at 3.6 per cent in March, roughly in line with January and February's figures.

Bro Labour Market Trends

Modest job gains in March follow an up-and-down stretch for the labour market. While the final four months of 2025 saw a rapid run-up in job growth, some of those gains were offset by a loss of more than 100,000 positions across January and February of this year. On a year-over-year basis, total employment was up by 87,000 positions in March.

This data marks the Bank of Canada's last look at the labour market before its next interest rate decision on April 29.