After a year and a half of job uncertainty, industry restrictions and lock downs, Canada is finally seeing employment rates return to a pre-pandemic normal.
According to Statistics Canada, employment in the country rose by 157,000 jobs in September, marking the fourth consecutive month of increase in employment rates.
The surge was more than double the number of new jobs than economists were expecting.
This increase means employment in the country returned to it’s February 2020 level, just prior to the beginning of the pandemic.
The increase in employment was concentrated in full-time work, among people ages 25 to 54 and across multiple industries and provinces.
The number of people working from home was 4.1 million in September, down from 5.1 million in April 2020.
In the same month, Canada’s unemployment rate also fell 0.2% down to 6.9%. This is 0.9% lower than in February 2020.
From May to August, employment in the accommodation and food sector saw a gain of 211,000 new jobs.
However, in September, the sector saw a loss of 27,000 jobs.
Statistics Canada says the job gains were widespread, but concentrated in full-time work and evenly split between the public and private sector.
