Last Updated on February 7, 2022

Canada felt the impact of the fifth wave of COVID-19 in January, with employment falling by more than 200,000 jobs and unemployment rising to 6.5 percent.

The Canada jobs Labour Force Survey saw the first rise in unemployment in nine months, as the Omicron variant checked what had been an impressive recovery from the global pandemic.

Despite the overall declines, jobs still increased in five out of 10 provinces, with the rise of Omicron uneven across Canada.

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Demographically, employment losses were concentrated in younger workers, with 15-to-24-year-olds losing 93,000 part-time jobs and 46,000 full-time positions.

Women aged 25 to 54 also saw a significant decline, losing 43,000 part-time jobs.

For men in the same age group, employment held steady, while there was also little change for employment for both men and women aged 55 or over.

What Are The Labour Force Survey Highlights?

Source: Statistics Canada

Provincial Canada Jobs Picture

Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Manitoba were the five provinces to see jobs gains of varying numbers.

Alberta led the way by adding 7,000 jobs for an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent, a drop of 0.3 percentage points compared to December.

In British Columbia, an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent came after the province added 4,200 jobs. Again, unemployment declined by 0.3 percentages points.

Saskatchewan added 3,900 jobs, with an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent, exactly the same as the previous month.

Nova Scotia saw unemployment fall by 1.1 percentage points to 7.0 percent, adding 2,700 jobs.

Manitoba added 700 jobs for an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent.

All of these increases were wiped out by declines in other provinces, including Ontario, which lost 145,700 jobs and Quebec, which lost 63,000.

Unemployment Rates In Canada’s Provinces

Source: Statistics Canada

Canada Jobs Picture By Industry

Looking at jobs by industry, the services-producing sector saw a decline of 223,000 jobs, the first since April 2021, although employment remained at pre-pandemic levels.

Given Omicron-related restrictions, there were notable employment declines in accommodation and food services (-113,000), information, culture and recreation (-48,000) and retail trade (-26,000) in January. Employment also fell in business, building and other support services (-22,000) and in ‘other’ services (-13,000).

Meanwhile, employment increased by 23,000 in the goods-producing sector, building on the gain of 43,000 recorded in December. The increase in January 2022 was driven by the construction industry (+23,000), with natural resources (+5,900) also contributing to the increase.