The Canadian economy kept adding jobs at a steady pace in June, in part because the youth summer job market got off to a great start, but economists say there are still areas of concern.
Eighteen-thousand net new jobs were added to Canada’s labour force last month, according to the Labour Force Survey released by Statistics Canada Friday.
The overall unemployment rate fell to 6.5 per cent from 6.6 per cent in May, when 88,000 net jobs were added. At the same time, sectors hit hard by economic uncertainty and tariffs saw weakness last month, including manufacturing.
“Not a blockbuster report, but one that still took the labour market in the right direction,” says senior economist Brendon Bernard at Indeed Canada in a statement.
Statistics Canada says 33,000 workers aged 15 to 24 found employment in June, which was a better start than last year.
The youth unemployment rate fell 0.7 per cent from May to 12.7 per cent in June, which is down from 14.2 per cent a year earlier.
Most of those younger workers — about 25,000 — found part-time roles, the agency says.
Among returning students aged 15 to 24, the unemployment rate was 15.3 per cent, which is down from 17.4 per cent a year earlier.
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They mostly found work in retail trade (25.7 per cent), accommodation and food services (23.3 per cent) and information, culture and recreation (13 per cent).
“Labour market conditions held onto a larger-than-expected improvement in May with the unemployment rate edging down to 6.5 per cent in June from 6.6 per cent the prior month, led by a pullback in the youth unemployment rate on an improved summer job market,” said assistant chief economist Nathan Janzen at Royal Bank of Canada in a statement.
“The labour market is still not strong — the unemployment rate is still higher than normal.”
The manufacturing sector took a hit last month, shedding 17,000 jobs, or a drop of 0.9 per cent. That’s part of a rougher trend, where some 61,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since a recent peak in January 2025.
Agriculture also felt the squeeze last month with 7,600 jobs lost (down 3.3 per cent), while utilities lost 7,300 jobs (down 4.3 per cent).
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“Canada’s labour market finally caught a bit of a break in June,” said economist Anupriya Gangopadhyay of the Business Data Lab and Canadian Chamber of Commerce in a statement.
“The recovery is still uneven. Manufacturing, agriculture, and utilities all lost jobs, reminding us that some sectors of the economy continue to face pressure.”
Canada’s economy has been navigating a path of uncertainty after more than a year of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and rocky CUSMA (Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement) trade negotiations.
On top of trade uncertainty, the Iran war has caused prices for oil and other commodities to spike in recent months, which could translate to higher costs for businesses and consumers alike.
“The weak portions of the report were concentrated in manufacturing and construction, which both declined in June, reversing gains in May,” said Bernard.
“Trends in both sectors, particularly in manufacturing, have been subdued, a sign that the economy remains far from firing on all cylinders.”
A Deloitte outlook report from last month described the economy as being “on pause.”
The biggest issue, Deloitte said, is that the overall uncertainty weighing on businesses means they are hesitant to invest until there is a clearer outlook, and less investment can translate to fewer jobs being created.
“While some of the recent volatility in the market appears to be easing, broader global and trade uncertainty still cloud the outlook,” said Gangopadhyay.
The June jobs report will be the Bank of Canada’s last major look at the state of the economy before making its next interest rate decision on Wednesday.
– with a file from The Canadian Press
Now if only wages would keep up with the rise in the cost of living, maybe the average Canadian might feel more buoyed by the news. But for the last thirty years, no matter the party in charge, the government has prioritized the profits of business owners over the ability for Canadians to afford to live in our country. Stop the handouts to the wealthy elite that will ship our jobs overseas at the drop of a hat, and start investing in the people of our great nation once again.
I’m elated to see this increase in jobs was widely reported by the ALL of the media in Canada.
Apparently Global News hires journalists.
I am quite certain the appropriate term based on their actions is cheerleader.
Humingbird, it does, and 18,200 is beyond pathetic.
It is the worst number of the decade. It is only surpassed by June 2019 when businesses were forced to close if they didn’t sell food or alcohol.
Really unfortunate that so many posters can’t make a point without resorting to calling other posters names.
For the dumb Liberald everywhere…
18,200 is a horrible number of jobs created for June of any year. A large proportion of our economy is seadonal from construction, to forestry to fishing and hospitality.
Only 18, 200 jobs created for what should be our biggest month for job gains!!!
If you don’t know this you are:
Retired
Over 65 years of age
A child
An idiot
A newcome
A Liberal
Anonymous, your idiot PM has the worst June Job numbers since June of 2019 by a wide margin.
We have not had a worse econonic advisor since Trudeau shut down our entire econony.
You are a spectacular idiot.
Lost 116,000 in the first four months…
Still shy of us reliving December of 2025.
18,200 is really shy year over year with
June 2025 83,100
June 2024, 83,100
June 2023 83,000
June 2022 43,600
June 2021 231,000 (Covid anomaly followong lossrs of 275,00).
June 2020 953,000 (Covid anomaly)
June 2019 2,200.
So, Carney is worse than our economy at the height of Covid 19.
This data is the worst number reported in June for the decade so far.
Source: Statistics Canada
Carney should resign immediately
Why is PP dressing like Liberace?
He’s sure a winner, or I mean whiner.
Where’s the Whinestone Cowboy PP?
Ben , eat my azz out again
Temporary summer job season
Happens every year
I’m a paid Liberal troll please keep believing my nonsense posts it makes me so much money.
How shameful. Youth unemployment is currently above 12.5% and Liberals are doing victory laps.
Unemployment should be much much lower. This is just embarrassing.
USAs unemployed much lower than Canada. Our GDP is growing while Canadas is stagnant or in contraction. Carney has done a poor job as PM.
These seasonally adjusted figures come on top of the 88000 jobs created in May. Great news!
Ben
July 10, 2026 at 8:46 pm
These figures are seasonally adjusted for the blip in hiring in summer. Therefore this is not due to summer jobs.
Yea whatever Ben you Liberal azz pilot.
Lmfao. 18,000 jobs in June is nothing to celebrate unless you are a stupid liberal maggot.
Look at the stats: we added 600 full time jobs and the rest are part time
I’ll pay all you liberal voters minimum wage to eat my azz out
Balogney!
These figures are seasonally adjusted for the blip in hiring in summer. Therefore this is not due to summer jobs.
Why are we cheering for a drop in youth unemployment rate when the only reason is because part-time temporary summer jobs are available? If that’s the metric the government uses to measures youth job acquisition, I’m not surprised that our emigration rate is high. Gig work is not a measure of a thriving economy.
I’m in the youth category and I’ve already made plans to leave this country. There is no future, especially since there will be an influx of pensioners in the next few years which my taxes will subsidise. People my age can barely get their foot in the door for an actual career, let alone the one they prefer.
I guess all those temp jobs for summer and World Cup kicked in. Tell us about full time /good paying jobs not a part time job at Roger’s center serving hot dogs at minimum wage.
Funny story on Carney and his nothing burger deal with UAE. What a failure
I would love for statscan to actually do a true reflection of the job market and find out how many of the part time jobs are taken by people with full time jobs as well. These jobs reports are always wrong as they assume everyone works one job which in reality everyone I know has 2 or more now to pay to live in Canada unless you work for the government then you’re pretty set for life on the backs of everyone else in the private sector.
The reality is Gun Lobbyists in Canada are the most irrelevant group of individuals in the entire country next to White Nationalists
Kind of figured good news was coming as neither the Sun nor N.P. mentioned a single word on the stats.If it was bad, they’d be out in full force.
don’t work for decayed bammerfoidisimparchy capitalism.Don’twork.let it die. sabotage the government .demand deportations of 3rd world.
More smoke and mirrors about the economy in Canada.
Whoooeee! 18,000 new jobs. SUMMER HIRES! Nothing more. Just media hyping numbers again. The Liberals are a damned curse on Canada!
That’s not jobs in thumbnail that’s incorrect housing architecture by wood chop apes. We’re apes. 99% identical chimpanzee. It’s all wrong.
Things Olivia Chow, Doug Ford, and Mark Carney have no comment for:
Canada: 6.5%
Ontario: 7%
Toronto: 7.2%
The 7.2% figure is allegedly derived from a population of 7.1 million.
I’m still fully employed and filled up. Load me up for a nickle I’ll straw it out and eat it
The good news is the figures are seasonally adjusted. The month before Canada also saw a spectacular increase in employment as well.
The reality is I don’t know shlt about gun violence statistics. I’m a MAGAtard that believes in fabricated conspiracy theories. I blame all of my problems on the Liberals but in reality I’m the reason why my life sucks so bad. Speaking of guns I wish I could kill myself with my AR-15 but I’m too much of a whiteboy pussy
The liberal party must be potting themselves on the back today
Something, something, FIFA
I see we have some meandering fake experts on gun violence today.
Main testimony, a woman in an abusive relationship a liberal judge allowed to walk.
A trade surplus of $4BB credited to the great province of Alberta and a global surge in demand for oil thanks to Iran/Trump
In other news Carney plans to increase the deficit from $0.5TT in 2015 now over $1.2T after JT to $3TT by the end of his term.
For $2TT dollars he can just give away $4BB a day worth of free goods to create a daily surplus of $4BB for….yeah looks like 5000 days or over 13 years…..libs suck at math
I paid $2TT dollars and all I got was this $4BB surplus.
Actually not true, we got nothing for $2TT to date, that surplus was allllll alberta oil baby, Ontario libs be strutting like peacocks saying , oh look at this surplus, Alberta is like um your welcome but like maybe pick up your slack your monthly loss of 20 000 manufacturing jobs is showing !
Whoop-Di-Doo.
FIFA is over. Wait until the temporary summer jobs dry up.
This is an award bot, you have won the low IQ comment award of the day congrats
@Marlyn. What “surplus”. Carney blew the deficit right out of the water. Didn’t even meet his budget, spent even more.
USAs unemployment is way lower than Canada.
PP said these are lies created by the wokes. Had he been PM, he would build cowboy costume factories all over this nation and there would be zero unemployment.
@James agreed that we have an unemployment problem and our productivity growth is abysmal compared to other countries. Part of the unemployment is due to tariffs, and part is due to the lack of uniformity in regulation across Provinces. The other part is a lack of competition in key sectors like banking and telecoms IMHO.
Carney just posted a surplus too.
Cons will be mad.
All these trade deals!
A FIFTH Con MP just started working for Carney. lol….
Ben, we have the second highest unemployment rate in the g7 , no spin needed
@Dennis: Sure it is. LOL.
What’s PP doing wearing a Liberace costume? Lethbridge Liberace?.
Note that the monthly employment and unemployment numbers reported are seasonally adjusted.
If youre only generating 18k jobs in the summer months your economy is effectively negative
One wonders what negative spin Team USA Poilievre and the conservatives will put on this.