Unemployment rate falls to 6.5% in June as youth add 33,000 jobs: StatCan

Trainee pipe fitters learn their trade at a union facility in Calgary, Friday, May 15, 2026.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

OTTAWA -- A better start to the youth summer jobs market helped the economy record steady employment gains in June, Statistics Canada said Friday.

Employers added 18,000 jobs last month, the agency said, mostly in part-time and private sector work.

That pushed the unemployment rate down a tenth of a point to 6.5 per cent, back to where it stood in January.

Employment gains narrowly topped economists’ expectations heading into the release but mark a slowdown from the 88,000 jobs added in May.

Young workers have struggled in a tough labour market in recent years, but the group was a bright spot in the June jobs report.

StatCan said youth aged 15 to 24 added 33,000 jobs in June, mostly in part-time work. Workers aged 25 to 54 saw similar gains while older members of the labour market faced losses.

The unemployment rate for returning students -- those planning to head back to school in the fall -- was 15.3 per cent in June, 2.1 percentage points lower than the same month a year ago. This was still higher than the pre-pandemic average of 13 per cent.

The agency noted however that job prospects varied widely within this age group.

Returning students aged 20 to 24 saw an unemployment rate of 8.2 per cent in June, while those aged 17 to 19 faced a jobless rate of 16.5 per cent. Teens aged 15 or 16 recorded an unemployment rate of 30.6 per cent in June as they searched for work in the waning days of the school year.

The wholesale and retail trade industry and the food and accommodation sector -- two areas that tend to employ a lot of youth -- led job gains in June.

Manufacturing, meanwhile, shed 17,000 positions last month. The industry is down some 61,000 jobs since a recent peak in January 2025 as U.S. tariffs continue to weigh on the sector, StatCan said.

All told, overall employment was up by 99,000 positions year-over-year in June with growth concentrated in the private sector.

Average hourly wages rose 3.3 per cent annually in June, up from three per cent in May.

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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2026.

Craig Lord, The Canadian Press