Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 7.1% in September 2025, slightly below market expectations of 7.2% but remaining at its highest level since August 2021. The number of unemployed people rose by 11,900 (+0.7%) to 1.61 million, while employment increased by 60,400 (+0.3%) to 21.02 million, easily surpassing forecasts for a modest 5,000 gain and partly offsetting a 106,000 (-0.5%) decline over the previous two months. Full-time employment rose sharply by 106,100 (+0.6%), whereas part-time jobs fell by 45,600 (-1.2%). The employment rate edged up 0.1 percentage point to 60.6%, marking the first increase in three months, while the labor force participation rate also ticked higher by 0.1 point to 65.2%.