
Otawa: Employment in Canada fell for the first time in three years in March, the National Statistical Agency said on Friday, as uncertainty on the US tariff inspired the business to cut the staff and stall hiring.
According to Statistics Canada, Canada shed some 33,000 net jobs a month, increasing the unemployment rate by 0.1 percent to 6.7 percent.
“I know that a great number of Canadians are concerned,” Prime Minister and liberal leader Mark Carney said on Friday about the latest tariff announcements.
Prior to a campaign program in Montreal before the national elections, Carney said, “Week and months will not be easy, but we will not leave you. We will fight against these tariffs.”
Statistics Canada said in a statement that the decline of march jobs was inspired by a full -time loss among workers, who had “seen a strong upward trend” in the second half of 2024. “
These disadvantages were mostly in the private sector, especially wholesale and retail, as well as information, culture and entertainment.
Canada was widely spared widely with a global tariff, the announcement by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, as Washington gave a discount for compliance with goods with the US-Canada-Maxico free trade agreement, which includes most of the products.
But on Thursday, two neighbors slapped a tight-for-tat 25 percent tariff on some vehicles crossing the border, when Washington put the levy on Canadian Steel and Aluminum.
Washington also announced last month, but then stopping the tariff on most Canadian goods and energy imports in the United States, stating that it was in response to illegal immigration and deadly drug fencing in the United States.
Economists expected that the Canadian job market would start slowing down in march as the companies held back on investment and work, which increased in December 2024 and January, adding 211,000 pure new jobs before flatline in February.
But they were surprised by the limit of loss, CIBC Economics analyst Andrew Grantham said that the forecast of consensus had pointed to the benefit of 10,000 pure new jobs.
He said in a research note, “Wheels may begin to fall from Canada’s labor market.”
However, he said, “Staff levels” are expected to be the first (and) in the areas, the most difficult by the American tariff, with an increase in transportation and warehousing posting, while manufacturing employment fell marginally. ,
TD senior economist James Orlando commented that “business and consumers naturally hesitate to increase political uncertainty.”
“Today’s report shows,” he said, saying that Canadians who lose their jobs are also taking more time to find work.