Jobs Statistics in Canada

Many job sectors in Canada and around the world were heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with approximately one million jobs lost in Canada in April 2020 alone. Since then, the Canadian labour market has undergone several phases of recovery and adjustment as higher interest rates, population growth, and global economic uncertainty have affected employment conditions.

In this article, we explore the job situation across Canada using the latest available data up to 2025, such as employment and unemployment figures, wage levels, the distribution of jobs by province and industry, and trends in job vacancies. 

Jobs Statistics for Canadians

• In September 2025, over 20.9 million Canadians were in employment.
• The unemployment rate in Canada was 6.0% in September 2025.
• With an average hourly rate of $51.34, the utility sector has the highest average pay across the employment sectors.
• Retail trade is the biggest job sector in Canada with just over 2 million employees.
• With 7.65 million jobs, Ontario has the most jobs in Canada.
• The number of job vacancies was record high in Canada in 2022 and 2023, before declining somewhat in 2024 and 2025.
• Canadian workers are the most satisfied with their jobs according to an international survey.

Jobs in Canada

As of September 2025, there were over 20.9 million Canadians in paid employment. This represents a small increase compared to September 2024 when there were 20.5 million employed persons in Canada. The unemployment rate in September 2025, at 6.0%, was slightly lower than the year before.

The average weekly pay in September 2025 was $1,310.45, up from $1,252.85 in September 2024. The average minimum wage in Canada is $16.00 per hour, while the average hourly earnings were $36.80 in September 2025. In the first quarter of 2025, there were about 720,000 job vacancies in Canada.

Employment in Canada in the Last Ten Years

There has been an upward trend in the number of people in employment, either employed or self-employed, in Canada in the last ten years. There were 17.58 million employed persons in Canada in 2013 compared to 20.9 million employed persons in December 2025. The numbers have risen each year in the last decade except in 2020, when due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of employed Canadians fell to 18 million.

Wages in Canada

The hourly wages in Canada have increased across all sectors and the average hourly rate rose from $27.52 in 2015 to $36.80 in November 2025. The best hourly rate is in the utility sector where employees earn $51.34 per hour on average.

This is followed by the forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil, and gas industries, with an average hourly rate of $47.50. The top three are completed by the professional, scientific, and technical sectors with $44.78.

The lowest paying sector is the accommodation and food services where employees earn $19.50 per hour on average. In agriculture, the average hourly pay is $22.80, and in wholesale and retail trade $25.45.

Which Sectors Have The Most Jobs?

There are eighteen different main employment sectors in Canada. The largest sector by the number of employees is the retail trade sector, with just over 2 million employees. The other sectors in the top five in Canada are manufacturing with 1.7 million, construction with 1.6 million, professional, scientific, and technical with 1.5 million, and accommodation and food services with 1.2 million. These figures include people who are employed or self-employed and working either full or part-time.

Number of Jobs in Provinces and Territories in Canada

The number of jobs across the provinces and territories in Canada is related to the number of residents. Since Ontario has the highest population, it also has the highest number of jobs, with 7,650,000.. The number of jobs in all provinces and territories is listed below.

Province or Territory	Number of Jobs
Ontario	7.65 million
Quebec	4.25 million
British Columbia	2.85 million
Alberta	2.35 million
Manitoba	710 thousand
Saskatchewan	590 thousand
Nova Scotia	490 thousand
New Brunswick	380 thousand
Newfoundland and Labrador	230 thousand
Prince Edward Island	80 thousand
Northwest Territories	28 thousand
Yukon	27 thousand
Nunavut	21 thousand

Job Vacancies in Canada

During 2023 and 2024, the number of job vacancies declined in Canada following the record highs seen in 2022. In the third quarter of 2021, there were 912,600 vacancies compared to 991,680 in September 2022. The rise in vacancies followed the easing of restrictions after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the third quarter of 2025, there were around 682,000 vacancies across the country.

Changes in Job Vacancies Across Industrial Sectors

Between the third quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2025, sixteen out of twenty major industrial sectors saw job vacancies increase overall, despite some year-to-year fluctuations. As in earlier years, a large share of the increase was concentrated in a small number of sectors. The biggest rises in vacancies were in accommodation and food services at around 85%, construction at approximately 70%, healthcare and social assistance at about 65%, manufacturing at around 55%, and retail trade at roughly 40%.

The only sectors that did not record a sustained increase in the number of vacancies over this period were the real estate and rental sector and the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting sectors.

Key Skills in Job Vacancies

Employers in Canada are looking for specific skills in their employees, which include active learning and critical thinking, technical skills, and complex problem-solving. In a recent 2024 survey, listening skills were important in 82.4% of all vacant jobs in Canada.

Other highly valued skills listed in more than half of the vacancies were speaking at 74.1%, critical thinking at 70.5%, reading comprehension at 61.2%, social perceptiveness at 53.0%, and time management at 52.7%.

Working From Home

During the COVID-19 pandemic, more people worked from home and since then, studies have found that approximately 39% of jobs in Canada could be carried out from home. Of course, there are variations across industries, with some jobs better suited to working from home while others are not.

In April 2020, at the height of the pandemic, around 40% of employees in Canada did most of their work from home. This is considerably more than in 2016 when only 4% of the Canadian workforce did most of their hours from home. It is also less than in August 2021 when 23% worked most of their hours from home. Since then, the figure has settled around 20-24%, with around one-third of Canadians working remotely at least part=time. 

Job Satisfaction in Canada

Canadians are among the happiest workers in the world, with almost two-thirds of the Canadian workforce saying they like or love their job. Close to a quarter of Canadians (24%) say they enjoy their work so much that they would do it for free. Around 40% of the workforce in Canada say they enjoy their job but would like it better with some changes, while 29% are happy with their jobs for the time being.

The level of job satisfaction in Canada is well above other countries surveyed including India, the UK, the US, France, and Germany. The Netherlands had one of the happiest workforces, with 57% of employees either loving or liking their jobs a lot.

Just 2% of Canadians said they hate their job and 5% do not like their jobs. In the US, about 14–15% of people responding to the survey said they hate or dislike their jobs, a significantly higher figure than in Canada.

The most likely workers to be unhappy with their jobs in Canada are workers under 25. Around 13% of workers under 25 years of age said they dislike their jobs and would like to do something different.

The survey also found that people earning more, especially those earning over $100,000, were more likely to be happy at work compared to people on lower wages. Only around 44% of employees earning under $50,000 said they love or like their jobs a lot.

Summary

While around a million jobs were lost in Canada at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the job market has recovered well since then. The number of people employed in Canada has risen but the unemployment rate has decreased slightly in 2025. At the same time, job vacancies remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic years.

Ontario has the highest number of jobs in Canada with over 7 million jobs in the province. Nunavut has the least jobs with around 21,000 positions in the territory. The largest industry when measured by the number of jobs in Canada is retail trade with over two million jobs. Manufacturing and construction are also both large employment sectors.

While the sector with the jobs with the highest average hourly rate is the utility sector with $51.34, the lowest paying jobs are in the accommodation and food services where the average hourly rate is only $19.50.

Canadian workers remain among the happiest in the world with only 2% of the workforce saying they hate or dislike their job. Job satisfaction in Canada is highest among people earning over $100,000 per year.