The Government of Canada is aggressively reducing its workforce, but it should consider the environment it helped create. It’s taking workers much longer to find a job, according to January data from Statistics Canada (StatCan)—which was also just directed to slash 1 in 10 of its own jobs. The share of workers now considered long-term unemployed is surging to levels not seen since the 1990s, with over half struggling to find work for more than a year.
Nearly 1.5 Million Canadians Were Unemployed In January
Seasonally adjusted unemployment fell 6.1% to 1.46 million in January, down 2.5% from last year. The decline was largely attributed to fewer people searching for work, as one needs to be ready, willing, and able to work during the survey’s reference week. Failing to meet the strict criteria—such as being a full-time student—means the jobseeker isn’t unemployed for statistical purposes.
That’s the good news. The bad news is Canadians who find themselves in this situation should prepare to job hunt for a lot longer these days.
Canadians May Want To Put Aside At Least 6 Months Savings
Canadian unemployment: Average duration in weeks.
Source: Statistics Canada; Better Dwelling.
Experts often say people should have 3 months’ emergency savings, but that would be half the amount needed in Canada. The average duration of unemployment in Canada climbed to 22.7 weeks in January, 2.7% longer than a month before. The nearly six-month stretch is unusually long for Canada; in recent history we’ve only seen it surpassed in July 2025’s job data, and for a 4-month stretch during the pandemic. Prior to that, one would have to go all the way back to October 1999 to see anything at this level.
Canadians Face 90s Levels of Long-Term Unemployment
Canadian long-term unemployment: Share of unemployed searching for work at least 27 weeks, %.
Source: Statistics Canada; Better Dwelling.
The number of Canadians facing long-term unemployment is also reaching concerning levels. Long-term unemployment is 27 weeks or longer in Canada, or anything over 6 months to those not fluent in government jargon. This is considered a critical threshold, with longer durations increasing the odds a person will need retraining to re-enter the workforce.
Most of Canada’s unemployed population is under that threshold, but the share is falling. There were 1.04 million unemployed for less than 27 weeks in January, representing 71.1% of those considered unemployed. The share made an unusually sharp drop for seasonally adjusted data, shedding 1.2 points in the month as more people crossed the long-term line. Aside from 2021, we need to go back to the 1990s to see such a small share.
The result is that long-term unemployment is surging. There were 369.6k unemployed for at least 27 weeks in January, with the share climbing 3.5 points to 25.4% of workers. Excluding the January to September 2021 pandemic period, the share was last this high back in May 1997. Most (57.6%) of those jobseekers have now been unemployed for at least 52 weeks, amounting to 212.9k people struggling to find work for more than a year.
Unfortunately, the trend is set to worsen in the near-term. A recent survey from the Bank of Canada, itself eliminating 1 in 10 jobs, found more employers plan to cut jobs than during the pandemic. At the same time, the central bank’s Governor urged business leaders to engage in a dramatic restructuring of the economy, which he concedes will be a “painful” adjustment. The Bank is even counting on the lack of demand (i.e. income) to moderate inflation created by the restructuring. Just swell, eh?
in the 90s a paycheck at the mall was 4 months rent or a mortgage (pretty much the same then). Today a paycheck at the mall isn’t enough for a week’s worth of grocery. When does the AI apocalypse get to the part where the deflation comes, or did they forget that monopolies don’t voluntarily reduce prices?
Cheap land is how you get productivity. Cheap credit is how you destroy a country.
The BS part of this whole situation is the gov ran up a tab when employment was good, squeezing SMBs for taxes. Now the downturn is where the gov is supposed to be spending, and they’re spending a F*K ton… on themselves. Cutting jobs, and offshoring spend.
Soon they’ll have to jack up taxes to pay for all of the hard done unemployment they created.
Bingo. The excessive gov employment trend was created with record low rates. Now that things are going to s***t, they know they can spend more on themselves and use Orange Julius as the reason everyone is unemployed. No journalist is going to figure out that 52+ weeks of unemployment being the bulk of the L/T problem means it started before he even threatened our economy.
I put away 6 months savings every year. I store in a Revenue Canada Account. They assure me that when I turn 70, whether I want it or not, they will return all of it to me provided I live until I’m 170…