Canada’s Unemployment Hits 7%, Highest Point in Almost a Decade Excluding Pandemic Period

Construction workers on a new condo site in Saint John, New Brunswick, on May 6, 2025. The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes

Canada’s unemployment rate surged in May, reaching its highest point since 2016, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic period, with 1.6 million people classified as jobless across the country, new data suggests.

The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 7 percent last month, leading to a total of nearly 14 percent more jobless people compared to the same time last year, a newly released report from Statistics Canada said. It’s also a 6.6 percent rise since the beginning of the year.