More Canadians looking to change jobs; retail employment rises in August: StatsCan

More Canadians are considering leaving their job compared to last year, per new data from Statistics Canada.

The agency’s August Labour Force Survey found that while the job-changing rate was down slightly last month compared to June and July, the number of Canadians planning to leave their current position is on the rise.

Canada’s unemployment rate rose 0.5 percentage points to 5.4% in August, up 0.5 percentage points from the record low of 4.9% observed in June and July.

Wholesale and retail trade employment was up 0.1% compared to July and up 2.7% compared to August 2021.

Employment declined by 40,000 (-0.2%), bringing cumulative declines since May to 114,000. 

In August, more than one in 10 (11.9%) permanent employees reported intention to leave their job within the next 12 months, almost double the level recorded in January (6.4%). 

Changing careers remained the most common reasoning, but the proportion of permanent employees who indicated they were planning to leave their job due to low pay increased to 1.9% in August (up from 1.2% in January).

There were 307,000 Canadians in August who had left their job in order to retire at some point in the last year, up from 233,000 one year earlier and from 273,000 in August 2019.