Toronto’s unemployment rate climbed last month, hitting 9.2 per cent, according to new Statistics Canada data.
That’s up from a 7.5 per cent unemployment rate in October.
The shift was mainly caused by a higher number of people in the labour force looking for work.
The number of employed people in the city declined by 8,900 between October and November, while the labour force grew by 63,000. That coincided with a population spike of 22,000.
The unemployment rate in November 2023 was 6.6 per cent.
The city’s population grew by 304,000 year-over-year.
According to StatCan’s rolling three-month averages, Toronto’s unemployment rate was 8.1 per cent, the third highest among Canada’s 20 most populous cities. That puts it below Windsor (8.7 per cent) and Edmonton (8.3 percent) but well above places like Kelowna, Quebec City and Victoria, which all have unemployment rates below five per cent.
Year-over-year the unemployment rate rose in nearly all of Canada’s urban centres, with the exception of St. Catharines-Niagara, Halifax, Saskatoon and Victoria.
