75,000 New Jobs Added in July 2026: Ontario Grabs the Lion’s Share.

After several years of gloomy news surrounding the Canadian job market, today’s report from Statistics Canada, announcing the addition of 75,100 new jobs (a 0.4% increase) in July alone, serves as a breath of fresh air and a hopeful sign of more good news to come.

These job numbers are particularly noteworthy as they significantly exceed consensus estimates from a Bloomberg survey conducted a few months ago, which had projected a modest increase of only 20,000 positions and expected the unemployment rate to remain steady at 6.5%.

This surge in job vacancies has raised the net employment figures over the past three months (since April) to 181,100 and 196,000 compared to a year ago, resulting in the country’s unemployment rate falling to 6.4%, the lowest level in two years.

Furthermore, Statistics Canada’s labor force survey released today indicates that most of these gains (driven largely by the private sector) were distributed between full-time and part-time positions, with the wholesale and retail trade sector alone contributing 21,000 new jobs.

This recovery in the labor market is viewed as a positive sign that Canada’s economy is stabilizing after being affected by trade uncertainties and U.S. tariffs over the past two years.

StatsCan Numbers: 

–       Employment rose for individuals aged 25 to 54, predominantly among women in this age group.

–       The unemployment rate for men aged 25 to 54 remained steady at 5.8%, while it decreased to 5.2% for women in the same demographic.

–       Ontario reported the highest job growth among provinces in July, adding 52,000 jobs (an increase of 0.6%), primarily in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector. British Columbia experienced a similar increase, with 18,000 new jobs.

–       Manitoba’s employment rate climbed by 0.8%, adding 5,900 new jobs, whereas Nova Scotia’s rate also rose by 0.8% with 4,600 new jobs.

–       The private sector saw an increase of 57,900 employees in July 2026, while the number of self-employed individuals grew by 44,400, offsetting a decline of 27,000 public-sector jobs.

–       Most of the new job growth occurred in the private sector, with approximately 146,000 jobs added over three months.

–       The “Job-finding Rate,” or the percentage of those unemployed who found jobs, increased to 20.8%, up from 18.5% in 2025, though it remains below the pre-pandemic average of 26.6% for the same period from 2017 to 2019.

More Positive News:

The summer job market has also improved for Canada’s youth. The unemployment rate for returning students aged 15 to 24 was 15.1% in July, down 2.4 percentage points from the previous year, although it remains higher than the pre-pandemic average of 12.6%.

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