Labour Force Survey, May 2026
Released: 2026-06-05
Highlights
Employment increased by 88,000 (+0.4%) in May and the employment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 60.7%. The unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 6.6%.
Employment increased among core-aged (25 to 54 years old) women (+31,000; +0.5%), core-aged men (+25,000; +0.3%), and youth aged 15 to 24 (+22,000; +0.8%).
The unemployment rate for youth declined 0.9 percentage points to 13.4%. The rate also fell among core-aged women (-0.4 percentage points to 5.5%) and core-aged men (-0.4 percentage points to 5.7%).
Employment increased in several industries, most notably in construction (+27,000; +1.7%), information, culture and recreation (+19,000; +2.3%), transportation and warehousing (+19,000; +1.7%) and accommodation and food services (+17,000; +1.5%). On the other hand, employment decreased in wholesale and retail trade (-35,000; -1.2%).
Employment rose in Ontario (+42,000; +0.5%), British Columbia (+25,000; +0.9%), Alberta (+14,000; +0.5%) and Prince Edward Island (+1,200; +1.3%), while it fell in Saskatchewan (-6,100; -1.0%).
Average hourly wages among employees increased 3.0% (+$1.10 to $37.24) on a year-over-year basis in May, following growth of 4.5% in April (not seasonally adjusted).
{snip}
Next release
The next release of the LFS will be on July 10, 2026. June 2026 data will reflect labour market conditions during the week of June 14 to 20.
= new reply since forum marked as read