Canadian Employment (September 2026)

Canadian employment declined from the previous month, with the economy losing about 68,000 jobs (-0.3 per cent) to 21.105 million in September. The employment rate fell 0.2 points to 60.6 per cent, while the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 points to 6.5 per cent. Average hourly wages rose 2.3 per cent year-over-year to $37.64 in September.
           
Employment in B.C. decreased by 0.7 per cent to about 2.929 million, with the provincial economy losing about 20,000 jobs in September. Employment in Metro Vancouver fell by 1.2 per cent to 1.699 million. The unemployment rate in B.C. fell by 0.1 points to 6.4 per cent, while Vancouver's unemployment rate rose by 0.6 points to 7.1 per cent in September. 

With September’s report, the Canadian economy has lost 110,000 jobs in the past two months, and employment is down by 40,000 since the end of last year. On a provincial level, broader weakness in the British Columbian labour market has skewed towards the private sector over the past few quarters (-60,000 jobs since September 2025), while the public sector continues to grow modestly. This print should at least partially quiet some of the expectations for aggressive Bank of Canada tightening and aligns with our expectation that the Bank will remain on hold this year. However, the Bank will also be closely watching for growing momentum in core inflation as high diesel prices pass through to transportation costs and consumer goods prices