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<\/a><\/p>\nConstruction employment posted the second largest decline in July\u2019s Labour Force Survey. (Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (3701), table 14-10-0355-01.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Employment in Canada\u2019s construction sector took a heavy blow in July, falling 1.3 per cent as it shed roughly 22,000 workers, according to the most recent Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada. This comes on the heels of five consecutive months with little change in employment numbers in the sector. Despite the drop, the number of people working in construction in July was little changed compared with 12 months earlier.<\/p>\n
Overall, employment in Canada fell by 41,000 positions in in July, a 0.2 per cent dip, while the employment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 60.7 per cent and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.9 per cent.<\/p>\n
July\u2019s drop partly offset the increase of 83,000 posted in June and was concentrated in full-time work. Overall, Statistics Canada reports little net employment growth since the beginning of the year, with the number of employed people in July little changed compared with January.<\/p>\n
The unemployment rate held steady in July, as the number of people searching for work or on temporary layoff varied little from the previous month. The unemployment rate had trended up earlier in 2025, rising from 6.6 per cent in February to a recent high of 7.0 per cent in May, before declining 0.1 percentage points in June.<\/p>\n
Unemployed workers continued to face difficulties finding jobs. Of the 1.6 million people who were unemployed in July, 23.8 per cent were in long-term unemployment, meaning they had been continuously searching for work for 27 weeks or more. This was the highest share of long-term unemployment since<\/p>\n
February 1998, aside from 2020 and 2021, which were impacted by Covid.<\/p>\n
Despite continued uncertainty related to tariffs and trade, the layoff rate was virtually unchanged at 1.1 per cent in July compared with 1.2 per cent 12 months earlier. According to Statistics Canada data, the layoff rate for the corresponding months from 2017 to 2019, prior to the pandemic, averaged 1.2 per cent.<\/p>\n
Workers are remaining confident in their employment prospects even though the nation is facing an uncertain economic outlook, reported the agency, which explained that, in a changing labour market, how employees perceive their employment prospects can provide insights into how factors, such as tariff-related trade uncertainty, are shaping workers\u2019 outlooks and career decisions.<\/p>\n
Based on additional questions asked in the survey in July, a majority of employees aged 25 to 64 reported being very confident in their employment prospects in their current line of work. Another 41 per cent were either quite confident or somewhat confident, while only four per cent reported not being confident.<\/p>\n
Among those who were not confident in their employment prospects, the most common main reported reason was the presence of layoffs in the industry, followed by a perceived lack of skills, experience, education or credentials, and tariff-related trade uncertainty. Only 6.6 per cent cited automation or artificial intelligence as the main reason for not being confident.<\/p>\n
In the construction sector 61.2 per cent of workers surveyed were very confident in their employment prospects. This may be reflective of the fact that their work is not dependent on U.S. demand for Canadian exports. Employees in those industries expressed two-and-a-half more tariff-related uncertainty compared to workers in industries exporting to the United States.<\/p>\n
www.statcan.gc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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