OTTAWA—Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 6.9 percent in April, the highest since November, as US tariffs started to hit Canada’s export-dependent economy in earnest, data showed on Friday.
The high unemployment rate in Canada, where the number of jobless people is inching towards 1.6 million, was partly a result of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on a raft of Canadian imports, Statistics Canada said, referring to the jobs shed in the manufacturing sector.
Overall, the employment number was largely flat with minimal gains of net 7,400 jobs in April, it said. This was in contrast to a loss of 32,600 jobs the prior month.
Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted employment to increase by 2,500 people and the unemployment rate to increase to 6.8 percent. The 6.9 percent figure matched November unemployment, which was an eight-year high outside of the pandemic era.
Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in March and automobiles in April, along with import duties on a broad range of products with various reductions and exemptions have impacted businesses and households.
