Employment tailed off in Canada last month, according to figures released Friday by Statistics Canada.
The monthly Labour Force Survey revealed employment fell by 213,000, or 1.2%, in January. The nation’s number-crunchers told Canadians losses were entirely in part-time work and were concentrated in the Quebec and Ontario retail trade sectors.
The jobless rate jumped 0.6% to 9.4% in January, the highest rate since August 2020.
The decline in January followed a 53,000 drop (-0.3%) in December and brought employment to its lowest level since August 2020.
Compared with February 2020, employment was down 858,000 in January and COVID-related absences from work were up 529,000.
Among Canadians who worked at least half their usual hours, the number working from home increased by nearly 700,000 to 5.4 million in January, surpassing the previous high of 5.1 million in April.
