Statistics Canada (EC) has published that in 2021, the country added a record 885,000 jobs, after adding 54,700 jobs last December.
Employment increased by 55,000 (+0.3%) in December, while the unemployment rate changed little to 5.9%.
Among middle-aged men aged 25-54, employment increased by 63,000 (+1.0%), making it 162,000 (+2.5%) higher than it was in February 2020.
Although it did not change much in December, employment of middle-aged women has also shown an upward trend since June and was 130,000 (+2.2%) above the pre-pandemic level in December.
Unemployment remains slightly above pre-pandemic level
The unemployment rate was 5.9% in December, unchanged from November and slightly above the pre-pandemic level in February 2020 (5.7%).
The adjusted unemployment rate that includes people who want a job, but have not seen it in the world as 7.6%, marking the first return to the pre-pandemic level of this indicator.
The number of Canadians out of work for 27 weeks or more fell for the second month in a row (-25,000; -8.0%).
Average hourly wages have increased in the last 12 months
The European Commission reported that average hourly wages rose 2.7% (+$0.80) year-on-year in December, similar to the average rate of wage growth observed between 2017 and 2019 (+2.6%).
A year ago, in December 2020, average hourly wages increased 5.5% year over year. This is partly due to changes in the labor composition that occurred earlier during the pandemic. Using a method that keeps the staff composition by job and seniority constant at the 2019 average, year-over-year salary growth was 3.0% in December 2020.
With official information from EC
