While Canada’s employment rate was relatively unchanged in July, Statistics Canada did reveal interesting data about where Canadians are looking for and landing jobs.
The government data agency released its Labour Force Survey results for July last week. The unemployment rate remained steady at 6.4% with Canada losing 2,800 jobs that month.
StatsCan found that one of the hardest-hit job sectors was the private sector.
Employment was little changed in July 2024 (-2,800; -0.0%), while the employment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 60.9%. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.4%.
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“The number of private sector employees fell by 42,000 (-0.3%) in July, following two months of little change,” reads the report.
This is in contrast to the public sector, where employment rose by 41,000 in July and was up by 205,000 compared to the same time last year.
The agency says that employment gains over the last year in the public sector have been led by increases in health care and social assistance (+87,000), public administration (+57,000), and educational services jobs (+33,000).
When it comes to being self-employed, the report found that little changed in July, with self-employment up by 55,000 compared to last year.
However, an analysis by Better Dwelling argued that Canada is “creating fewer entrepreneurs and a bigger government.”
“Canada’s self-employed population has always been smaller than its public sector, but the gap is widening. The self-employed population shrunk 0.5% (-1.6k people) to 2.6 million in July,” reads the analysis.
Better Dwelling cites sharp increases in operating costs, less consumer spending, and higher taxation as reasons for this drop.
The analysis says the lack of development in the self-employment sector is “a big warning flag.”
“This is a big sentiment warning—people only go out on their own when they’re confident in the economy,” reads the analysis.
And if you’re looking for jobs in finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing, employment declined by 15,000 in July, the first decline since November 2023.
Employment in public administration rose by 20,000 last month, following an over 8,000 loss in June.
If you’re interested in government jobs, check out these specialized positions that pay up to $177,000.