Behind the statistical reports lies a more unsettling truth: Canada’s job market is not nearly as steady as the numbers suggest. While the Labour Force Survey for May 2025 reports an unemployment rate of 7.0%, Canadians are questioning whether that figure reflects the true depth of the problem.
In real terms, the picture appears far bleaker. When you account for discouraged job seekers, underemployment, and those forced into part-time roles while seeking full-time work, Canada’s effective unemployment rate is likely closer to 10%. With a population of over 40 million, as many as 2 million working-age adults are jobless or stuck in positions far below their qualifications.
According to Statistics Canada, employment remained virtually unchanged in May, with only 8,800 jobs added, a statistical zero in a labour force of nearly 21 million. The employment rate held at 60.8%, matching a low last seen in October 2024. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked up for the third straight month to 7.0%, the highest since 2016 outside of the pandemic years.
Despite the apparent growth in certain sectors like wholesale and retail trade (+43,000) and information and recreation (+19,000), these gains were offset by significant losses in public administration (-32,000), accommodation and food services (-16,000), and transportation and warehousing (-16,000). Youth unemployment remains a deep concern, with 20.1% of returning students unable to find work in May, a number during the financial crisis of 2009.
The reality on the ground tells a more troubling story. Across the country, skilled professionals with Canadian education or global credentials are finding it nearly impossible to secure employment. From my own experience, I’ve applied to over 100 jobs as a journalist, DevOps engineer, or a programming expert in Java, Python, C++, JavaScript and C# with specific resumes. No response. Nothing. It’s as if we are applying into a void.
This is not an isolated experience. Many highly educated Canadians are being asked to “adapt” or “retrain” for the job market, while new immigrants are added to the labour pool, without an increase in infrastructure or employment programs.
The disconnection is stark: Canadians are left in limbo, while the system prioritizes statistical optics over structural support.
Applying for government or municipal jobs has become, in the words of many, “a theatre of hope.” With postings open to the public but internal hiring dominating selections, the process feels exclusionary. It’s like a lottery ticket, you apply just in case. But deep down, you know it’s already spoken for.
If Canada is to address the growing employment crisis, transparency must replace opacity. While the existing Job Bank offers a basic service for job listings, what’s needed is a more ambitious and centralized labour force database, a mandatory national registry, tracking the education, skills, and work experience of all Canadians. The system should go beyond matching workers with job openings; it must guide individuals toward necessary retraining or credentialing pathways based on real labour market demand. For internationally educated professionals, such as doctors and teachers, clear, federally coordinated steps toward Canadian certification already exist in many provinces, but the current approach is fragmented and inconsistent. A redesigned, fully integrated system should include every Canadian, ensuring that no one falls through the cracks. This could help eliminate class barriers and create a fairer workforce, where experience and ability, not connections, references or bureaucracy, determine opportunity. Canada urgently needs qualified teachers and healthcare workers in many regions. At the same time, this system would protect Canadian-educated citizens from being sidelined or underemployed in a market that currently fails both groups through disorganization and neglect.
The Canadian government faces a pivotal moment. It must do more than issue monthly reports with modest adjustments and hopeful language. It must lead.
That means acknowledging that the current system is failing existing citizens and newcomers. It means providing real resources for job matching and international credential recognition. It means investing in wage-support programs, hiring incentives, and skill bridges that don’t treat applicants as statistics, but as citizens trying to find dignity in work.
It also means asking hard questions: Who is benefiting from the current system? Why are so many jobs in the public sector and city governments seemingly unreachable? And who will take responsibility for the silent exodus of Canadians, those now looking abroad for opportunity because the country they helped build offers no place for them?
Today, a growing number of Canadians are asking a difficult question: how is it that newcomers can purchase homes shortly after arriving, while many Canadian-born citizens, living in one of the world’s richest countries, struggle under crushing debt and live paycheque to paycheque?
Lifelong Canadians can’t afford basic accommodations, why? The answer lies not in blame, but in the urgent need for economic reform. Canadians are not asking for handouts, they’re asking for a fair shot: a full-time job, financial breathing room, and the ability to build a life without debt. They want to travel abroad not to escape, but with confidence, and with a bank account that reflects the value of their work. To achieve that, Canada needs a unified, data-driven employment system that ensures every Canadian has access to meaningful, full-time work that reflects their qualifications and potential.
The labour force isn’t static; it’s stalled. And if action isn’t taken soon, the cost won’t just be economic, it will be social, generational, and deeply human.