OTTAWA — Canada lost 68,000 jobs in September as the unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.5 per cent, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

The decline, equal to 0.3 per cent of total employment, was far weaker than economists had expected. A Reuters poll had forecast a gain of 9,200 jobs. The national employment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 60.6 per cent.

Ontario employment edges lower

Ontario employment declined by about 20,000 positions, or 0.2 per cent, while the province's unemployment rate held at 7.0 per cent. Compared with September 2025, Ontario still had 86,000 more people working, an increase of 1.1 per cent.

The provincial picture was uneven. Quebec lost 49,000 jobs and British Columbia lost 20,000, while employment increased by 23,000 in Alberta. Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island also recorded statistically significant changes.

Public-sector and manufacturing losses

Public-sector employment fell by 70,000 in September, its fourth consecutive monthly decline. Statistics Canada said the public sector had 119,000 fewer workers than a year earlier.

Education lost 35,000 positions, health care and social assistance lost 23,000, and manufacturing employment declined by 13,000. Those figures make the report particularly relevant to Hamilton, where public services, health care and manufacturing are major employers.

Full-time employment fell by about 35,000 and part-time work declined by roughly 33,000. The losses were also concentrated among young people: employment for workers aged 15 to 24 dropped by 48,000, while their unemployment rate was about 13 per cent.

Participation reaches a multi-decade low

The labour-force participation rate slipped to 64.8 per cent, the lowest level in 29 years outside the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Reuters' analysis of the Statistics Canada data. The rate measures the share of working-age people who are employed or actively looking for work.

Average hourly wages rose 2.3 per cent from a year earlier to $37.64. That was a slower pace than the wage growth recorded in recent months.

The unexpectedly weak report adds another soft reading to Canada's labour-market picture. The Bank of Canada considers employment, wages and broader economic activity when setting interest rates, though one monthly survey alone does not determine its decision.

Sources: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, September 2026, released October 9; Reuters report, October 9.

Lead image: AI-generated TNC archive illustration of Canadian industrial employment; not a photograph of the September Labour Force Survey or affected workers.