Canada’s largest city is commonly known as the country’s economic capital, but that may change soon. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows the Toronto CMA region added tens of thousands of jobs in January, but added even more unemployed people. Nearly 1 in 11 of the region’s workers are now actively unemployed and seeking work—a rate that’s rarely seen outside of the worst recessions.
Toronto Added 120k Jobs In The Past Year
First let’s start with the good news. Toronto is adding jobs at a fairly brisk rate. The region’s employed population climbed 0.8% (+31.5k) to 3.74 million people in January. Annual growth came in at 3.3% (+119.6k jobs), meaning nearly a quarter of gains were just last month. That would be very robust growth, if only it kept up with population estimates.
Toronto’s Unemployed Population Hit 357k People Last Month
Toronto CMA’s total unemployed population. Only those actively looking for work and considered available for the LFS reference week are included (i.e. full-time students, and those without work but not actively seeking employment are excluded).
Source: StatCan; Better Dwelling.
The only thing growing faster than Toronto’s jobs is the number of workers. The region’s unemployed population added 3.1% (+10.6k jobseekers) to hit a mindblowing 357.4k active job seekers in January. For those that missed it, the rate the region added unemployed people in the month was close to the rate it added jobs over the whole year.
The astronomical month continued a trend we’ve seen over the past year. The unemployed population surged 27.1% (+76.1k jobseekers) in the 12-months ending in January. Outside of the first year of the pandemic, the region hasn’t seen such aggressive growth of its jobless population in at least 10 years.
Nearly 1 In 11 Toronto Workers Are Now Unemployed
Persistently adding more jobseekers than jobs is a recipe for disaster, as most would assume. The unemployment rate climbed 0.2 points last month to hit 8.7% in January, adding about 1.5 points to last year. That effectively means that nearly 1 in 11 of the region’s workers are actively looking for work at the moment.
Canada’s labor market has sputtered over the past few months, but it isn’t nearly as bad as Toronto. The national unemployment rate was reported at 6.6% last month, about 2.1 points lower. Prior to 2020, Toronto hasn’t seen its unemployment rate climb to this height since 2012. Being home to the country’s financial sector, it was hit harder than most of Canada during the Global Financial Crisis.
There’s just a tiny detail to consider. Canada’s economy is facing threats from US tariffs, but it’s supposedly in a strong economy. That’s probably a hard sell to the people in Toronto, especially considering regions like Vancouver aren’t facing this kind of labor market pressure.