Canada's manufacturing sector shedded thousands of jobs last month in the face of costly tariffs from the U.S., intensifying demands for new supports for business and workers impacted by the trade war.
The Canadian economy added 7,400 jobs last month, the agency said, slightly outpacing economist expectations for a gain of 2,500 positions. But the unemployment rate also rose two tenths of a percentage point in April, topping economists’ call for a jobless rate of 6.8 per cent.
At 6.9 per cent, the unemployment rate is back at its recent high seen in November. Before then, the jobless rate had not hit that level since January 2017, outside the pandemic years.