Ottawa: The jobless rate jumped and employment levels fell for a third straight month in August.
According to the Statistics Canada, unemployment rate fell to 4.9 per cent in July, its lowest level on record.
The employment declined by 40,000 (-0.2%) in August, and unemployment jumped by 0.5 percentage points to 5.4%.
There were 307,000 Canadians in August who had left their job in order to retire at some point in the last year, up from 233,000 one year earlier and from 273,000 in August 2019.
Interestingly, employment fell among youth aged 15 to 24 in August, primarily young women, as well as among people aged 55 to 64.
Employment fell in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia, while it increased in Quebec. There was little change in the other provinces.
On a year-over-year basis, total hours worked were up 3.7%.
The average hourly wages of employees rose 5.4% (+$1.60 to $31.33) on a year-over-year basis in August, compared with 5.2% in both June and July, the Statistics Canada data revealed.
In August, over 1 in 10 (11.9%) permanent employees were planning to leave their job within the next 12 months, 5.5 percentage points higher than in January 2022.