Canada’s labour market weakened again in September, but Alberta moved in the opposite direction.

Statistics Canada reported that employment fell by 68,000 jobs nationally in September 2026, following a 42,000-job decline in August. Canada’s unemployment rate increased from 6.4% to 6.5%.

Alberta, however, added 23,000 jobs during the month. Its unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 6.4%.

The contrast matters because the national headline hides very different labour-market conditions across provinces, industries and age groups.

Canada lost jobs for a second consecutive month

The September decline followed a 42,000-job loss in August.

Combined, the two months erased 110,000 jobs after employment had increased by 181,000 between April and July.

September’s losses were divided between both full-time and part-time work.

• Full-time employment fell by 35,000
• Part-time employment fell by 33,000

Despite the two-month decline, Canada still had approximately 95,000 more employed people than a year earlier.

The national employment rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 60.6%.

The employment rate measures the share of people aged 15 and older who are working, so it can provide a different picture from the unemployment rate alone.

Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 6.5%

The unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points in September.

Earlier in 2026, it had reached 6.9% in April before declining to 6.4% in July and August.

September therefore returned the unemployment rate to the same 6.5% level recorded at the beginning of the year.

A higher unemployment rate does not necessarily mean layoffs suddenly surged.

Statistics Canada reported that the September layoff rate was 0.7%, close to both the year-earlier rate and the pre-pandemic average.

The more notable weakness was the difficulty unemployed people had finding work.

The job-finding rate has fallen

Among people who were unemployed in August, 30.6% had found a job by September.

One year earlier, that rate was 32.8%.

Before the pandemic, between 2017 and 2019, the average was 36.5%.

That means job seekers are currently moving into employment less quickly than they did several years ago.

For someone actively looking for work, this can matter more than the national unemployment rate itself.

Youth accounted for most of September’s job losses

The largest decline was among workers aged 15 to 24.

Youth employment fell by 48,000, or 1.8%, in September.

Employment among women aged 25 to 54 also declined by 28,000.

Younger workers are often more concentrated in industries with higher employee turnover, part-time work and seasonal hiring.

That can make youth employment more volatile from month to month.

Public-sector employment fell again

One of the most significant trends in the September report is the decline in public-sector employment.

The number of public-sector employees fell by 70,000, or 1.5%, during the month.

This was the fourth consecutive monthly decline.

Compared with September 2025, public-sector employment was down by 119,000, or 2.6%.

Statistics Canada says much of the year-over-year decline came from educational services.

Private-sector employment, meanwhile, was little changed in September but remained 163,000 higher than a year earlier.

Self-employment declined by 23,000 during the month but was still 51,000 higher year over year.

Education, health care and manufacturing lost workers

Three major industries recorded notable declines.

Employment in educational services fell by 35,000, or 2.2%.

Health care and social assistance employment decreased by 23,000, or 0.8%.

Manufacturing lost approximately 13,000 jobs, or 0.7%.

The health-care decline deserves some context.

It was the sector’s first monthly decrease since December 2022, but health care and social assistance still had 93,000 more workers than a year earlier.

It remained the largest contributor to national employment growth over the previous 12 months.

One industry moved higher

Employment in “other services” increased by 17,000.

This category includes areas such as repair and maintenance services and personal or household services.

Employment in the sector was 4.1% higher than one year earlier.

Alberta added 23,000 jobs

Alberta was one of the strongest provincial performers in September.

Employment increased by 23,000, or 0.9%, bringing total employment in the province to approximately 2.684 million.

Compared with September 2025, Alberta had 76,000 more employed people, an increase of 2.9%.

That year-over-year pace was substantially stronger than the national increase of 0.5%.

Alberta’s unemployment rate fell from 6.8% in August to 6.4% in September.

It was also 1.3 percentage points lower than a year earlier.

Alberta’s stronger month does not mean every job seeker has an easy market

A provincial employment increase does not mean jobs are equally available in every occupation or city.

Alberta can add employment overall while workers in individual industries still face difficulty finding suitable positions.

Maple Curiosity’s Alberta Job Vacancies analysis previously showed vacancies reaching 73,100 in July, their highest level since September 2024.

Vacancies and employment measure different parts of the labour market, but together they suggest Alberta has continued to generate stronger labour demand than several other provinces.

Quebec and British Columbia moved in the opposite direction

Quebec lost 49,000 jobs in September.

The province’s employment has declined by a cumulative 130,000 since January, while its unemployment rate rose to 6.0%.

British Columbia lost approximately 20,000 jobs during September.

Ontario employment edged down by around 20,000, while its unemployment rate remained comparatively high at 7.0%.

These regional differences are important when interpreting Canada-wide statistics.

A national labour market can weaken even while one province continues expanding.

Canada’s labour-force participation rate reached a multi-decade low

Another important number in the report is the participation rate.

Canada’s labour-force participation rate fell to 64.8%.

Excluding the pandemic year of 2020, this was the lowest rate since December 1997.

The participation rate measures the percentage of people aged 15 and older who are either working or actively looking for work.

A lower rate can reflect several factors, including people retiring, studying, becoming discouraged about job prospects or leaving the workforce for other reasons.

Population aging explains much of the participation decline

Statistics Canada specifically highlighted population aging as a major reason for the lower participation rate.

People aged 65 and older represented 23.2% of Canada’s working-age population in September 2026.

That compares with 20.5% in 2019 and only 14.8% around the beginning of the century.

Older Canadians are participating in the labour market at higher rates than previous generations, but participation still falls substantially after age 65.

As a larger share of Canadians enters older age groups, the national participation rate naturally tends to decline.

Maple Curiosity’s Canada Aging Population and Immigration analysis explains how this demographic change could affect labour supply, housing demand and economic growth over the longer term.

Wage growth accelerated slightly

Average hourly wages among Canadian employees reached $37.64 in September.

That was 2.3% higher than one year earlier.

Annual wage growth had been 2.0% in August.

For households, nominal wage growth is only part of the picture.

What matters for purchasing power is how wage growth compares with inflation.

What does this mean for someone looking for work?

The September data suggests that the Canadian labour market has become less favourable nationally than it was earlier in the summer.

Two consecutive months of employment losses, a lower job-finding rate and a declining participation rate all deserve attention.

But the situation varies greatly by province.

Alberta’s employment growth was strong enough in September to move against the national trend.

Someone considering moving between provinces for work should therefore look beyond Canada’s national unemployment rate and compare local industries, wages, vacancies and living costs.

EI rules are also changing this week

The labour-market release arrives just as three temporary Employment Insurance measures are scheduled to end on October 10.

Those temporary rules affect the one-week waiting period, treatment of separation earnings and additional weeks available to some long-tenured workers.

Maple Curiosity’s EI Temporary Measures guide explains what changes for new claims.

What should we watch next?

One month of employment data can be volatile.

The most useful question is whether September’s national weakness continues over several releases.

Key indicators to watch include employment growth, the unemployment rate, job-finding rates, labour-force participation and whether Alberta can continue outperforming the national labour market.

For now, September produced a clear split: Canada lost jobs overall, while Alberta added them.