At first glance, according to several commonly used indicators, Canada’s labour market has recovered from the initial COVID recession that began in 2020. Canada’s unemployment rate is now lower than when the pandemic hit, and the employment rate (the share of the adult population that’s working) has almost recovered to pre-COVID levels.
However, the story is more complicated than the headline numbers suggest. The latest monthly labour force statistics confirm that the government sector – not the private sector – has driven job growth since 2020.
