ANALYSIS: What the Latest Unemployment Numbers Show

A construction worker makes his way through a site in Ottawa on June 27, 2024. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Canada’s unemployment rate in August rose to 6.6 percent, the highest level since May 2017, excluding the pandemic lockdown years of 2020 and 2021, Statistics Canada reports. It represented a 0.2 percentage point increase compared to July’s rate of 6.4 percent.

Although the economy added 22,000 new jobs, a Sept. 6 TD Canada report said this figure was “swamped” by a population growth of 96,000 people and labour force growth of 82,500 new workers.