Canada's Unemployment Rate Increases in February

The unemployment rate has held relatively steady in recent months, sitting at 5.8 percent for three of the past four months. The labor force participation rate, the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who were employed or looking for work, held steady at 65.3 percent in February, according to the national statistical agency.

Employment rose by 41,000 in February. The employment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 61.5 percent as population growth continued to outpace employment growth, the agency said.

In February, women accounted for 47.3 percent of the Canadian labor force, with 9.7 million women employed, the agency noted.

Women accounted for 35.3 percent of all those employed in management occupations in 2023, the same share as in 2022, and little changed from the average from 2017 to 2019. Under one in three of those employed in legislative and senior management occupations were women in 2023, Statistic Canada said.

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