The Canadian economy added 17,500 new jobs last month, slightly less than economists expected, and not enough to prevent the unemployment rate from rising to 5.7 percent as more people entered the available labor force.

Statistics Canada reported on November 3 that the construction sector added 23,000 jobs, while the information, culture, and recreation sector added 21,000 jobs.

On the other end of the scale, retail lost 22,000 workers, while 19,000 jobs disappeared in the manufacturing sector.

The increase in jobs was also not enough to prevent the unemployment rate from rising by two points to 5.7 percent, because 57,800 people joined the Canadian labor force in October.

Unemployment rates have risen by 0.8 percentage points from their lowest level in five decades, which was 4.9%, recorded in the summer of 2022, and perhaps more importantly, they have returned to the same level they were at before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

This relatively weak employment number also comes after two months of strong job growth, with 40,000 jobs added in August and another 64,000 jobs in September.