Employment and unemployment

In 2002, the Canadian labour force comprised 16.7 million individuals from a population of nearly 25 million aged 15 and older. Roughly 15.4 million were employed while almost 1.3 million were classified as unemployed—either looking for work, on temporary layoff or about to start a job.

Unemployment peaked at 11.4% in 1993, almost matching rates of a decade earlier. Then, rates fell each year until 2000 when unemployment reached a low of 6.8%. Over the next two years, the rate rose, reaching 7.7% in 2002. That year, the labour force participation rate and employment rates were at their highest since 1990. As well, 8.3 million people were characterized as not being in the labour force in 2002, a decrease of more than 115,000 people from 2001 and the largest annual decrease in the past 30 years.  

Thanks to a strong economy, unemployment dropped to record levels in 2000. The unemployment rate fell from 7.3% at the beginning of the year to 6.3% in December, matching rates last set in September 1976.

Still, more than one million Canadians find themselves out of work in any given month, a number that has held true over the past two decades. Over that period, the average length of time that people remained unemployed increased to a peak of 25.7 weeks in 1994 before falling back to 16.2 weeks by 2002.

For most of the 1990s, the percentage of women in the work force—their labour force participation rate—was stagnant at about 58%, although it turned upward after 1997 and by 2002 had reached 61%. Men's participation rates declined slightly through the decade to around 72% and have since increased a point to 73% in 2002. Also less likely to work or look for work were those aged 55 and over, who were retiring earlier. Despite this trend, participation rates rose slightly for these older workers toward the end of the 1990s. By 2002, the rates were nearly the same as in the early 1980s.

Over much of the first half of the 1990s, part-time work was the major source of employment growth, a growth that still continues. Compared with 1990, the number of those employed part time in 2002 increased by 29% while the full-time jobs increased by only 15%.

Though big businesses create great demand for workers, it is the small ones—the local shop-owners and service providers—that drove Canada's employment engine in the early 1990s. Things have changed since the beginning of the new millennium. Businesses of less than 50 employees account for one-third of all employees while those with more than 300 employees represent almost one-half. In 2002, it was the mid-level businesses (50 to 299 employees) that, while accounting for the fewest employees, had the most growth in job creation.