Statistics Canada says employment fell by 207,000, or 1.1 per cent, in April as the unemployment rate rose 0.6 per percentage points to 8.1 per cent. The government agency blames the third wave of the pandemic for the decline. Saskatchewan bucked the trend though. Employment increased here and in New Brunswick, while there was little change in all other provinces. In contrast to the national decline, in Saskatchewan, employment increased by 9,500, or 1.7 per cent, and the unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points to 6.6 per cent.

Stats Canada says the number of Canadians working from home grew by 100,000 to 5.1 million.

May will mark the beginning of the summer student job season. In 2020, students entered a job market barely beginning to recover from the unprecedented employment losses of March and April; and, in May 2020, summer student employment was about 40 per cent lower than in the previous year.

Statistics Canada says that this year, the Canadian labour market in general is much closer to pre-pandemic conditions. However, significant challenges remain in several industries that typically account for the majority of summer student work. In the summer of 2019, for example, nearly two-thirds of employed students intending to return to school in the fall worked in retail, accommodation, and food services, or information, culture, and recreation.