Canada's unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points in October to 5.7 per cent, marking a fourth monthly increase in the past six months, the government statistical agency said Friday.
Since April, the rate has increased by a total of 0.7 percentage points, after holding steady at a near record-low from December 2022 to April 2023.
Some 18,000 new jobs were created in October, said Statistics Canada -- not enough to keep pace with soaring population growth (up 85,000) and slightly below analysts' forecast of 25,000 new jobs.
Employment gains in construction (+23,000) and information, culture and recreation (+21,000) were partially offset by decreases in wholesale and retail trade (-22,000) and manufacturing (-19,000), the agency said.
Among those unemployed in September, nearly two-thirds remained so in October. This was a greater proportion than a year earlier, Statistics Canada said, indicating that "job seekers are facing more difficulties finding employment than a year ago."
It noted also that one in three Canadians reported living in a household experiencing financial difficulties due to inflation, despite average year-over-year price increases recently falling to 3.8 per cent from a June 2022 peak of 8.1 per cent.
Most of those persons struggling were living in southern Ontario -- Canada's industrial heartland and home to one-third of its population.
Quebec residents fared the best in the measure of the cost of living stresses.
Analysts said the jobs data reinforces a consensus view, based on overall indicators, that the Canadian economy is softening and even on the brink of a recession.
"As a result, we believe the next move from the Bank of Canada will be (an interest rate) cut in the second quarter of 2024," Desjardins' Royce Mendes said in a research note.
RBC assistant chief economist Nathan Janzen predicted rates would "begin to move gradually lower in the second half of next year."
The Canadian central bank last week held its key lending rate at five per cent after having increased rates aggressively over the past year in a bid to tame inflation.