Canada’s unemployment rate declined to a mere 6.5% during the last month of November as the 
added 54,000 new jobs. This marked the third consecutive month of employment growth, as shared in Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey results released on Friday, December 5.
The unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points from October’s 6.9%, while the employment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 60.9%. The November rate of 6.5% represents the lowest unemployment level since it peaked at 7.1% 3 months back in September 2025.
November gains were driven by part-time employment increasing by 63,000 positions. Private sector employment also reflected a rise of 52,000, whilst the public sector and self-employment reflected very little change.
Employment among workers aged between 15 and 24 increased by 50,000 positions. That corresponds to a 1.8% increase that followed a 21,000-job gain during October alone. These were the first increases in youth employment since January 2025.
The youth unemployment rate fell 1.3 percentage points to 12.8% during November. Youth experienced rather difficult labour market conditions throughout most of 2025. The youth unemployment rate peaked at 14.7% in September. This was the highest value during the past 15 years since September 2010, excluding the pandemic years.
The employment rate for youth reached 55.3% in November, which amounted to a 1.7 percentage point increase from the corresponding value of a low 53.6% in July.
Employment amongst workers aged between 25 and 54 reflected little change in November. This was besides gains reflected in September & October that have pushed employment up for both men & women since August 2025.
The unemployment rate for core-aged men fell 0.4 percentage points to 5.6%, which reflected a 3rd consecutive monthly decrease. The rate among middle-aged women declined 0.2 percentage points to 5.5%.
Conversely, employment for workers aged 55 and older remained largely unchanged.
