{"id":14587,"date":"2025-04-04T12:12:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T16:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/?p=14587"},"modified":"2025-04-04T12:12:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T16:12:59","slug":"march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"March Labour Force Survey: Weak Numbers, While the Tariff-hit Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A downbeat report. The momentum in the job numbers at the turn of the year ended up short-lived. Conditions weakened in March, as employment slipped following a flat February, while hours worked barely rebounded following a sharp weather-induced drop. The employment decline was concentrated among full-time private sector employees, only partially offset by a rise in self-employment, which has perked up in recent months.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With tariff winds swirling, the natural question is how much they contributed to the soft March numbers. However, the breakdown in changes at the industry level didn\u2019t show a smoking gun. Employment declines were particularly sharp in lower-paying services like information and culture, business and building services, and retail and wholesale trade. Meanwhile, the more trade-exposed manufacturing industry also slipped, but the decline was within the sector\u2019s typical monthly volatility, while jobs in natural resources ticked up.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, March\u2019s weakness likely stemmed from trends that weighed on the job market in 2024, namely, slow hiring, which has made it more challenging for those out of work to land a job. Job postings on Indeed <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BrendonBernard_\/status\/1906740089230619130\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ticked down slightly<\/a> in the month, but demand throughout the past year hasn\u2019t been sufficient to help job seekers find work quickly. The result is that long-term unemployment is now trending up.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The unemployment rate ended the first quarter at 6.7%, matching where it stood in August. This rate isn\u2019t bad by historic standards, but we&#8217;re still waiting for the real hit from the trade war. With global stock markets now falling, the storm clouds on the horizon are quickly approaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Still waiting to see the direct effects of recent trade uncertainty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":14588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"recruiter-hub-blocks.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[607],"post_mwm_category":[715],"post_topic":[],"post_content_type":[],"post_duration":[],"post_actions":[],"post_franchise":[],"post_mwm_author":[670],"class_list":["post-14587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-featured","post_mwm_category-state-of-the-labour-market","post_mwm_author-bbernard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>March Labour Force Survey: Weak Numbers, While the Tariff-hit Looms - Indeed Hiring Lab Canada<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Conditions weakened in March, as employment slipped following a flat February, while hours worked barely rebounded following a sharp weather-induced drop.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"March Labour Force Survey: Weak Numbers, While the Tariff-hit Looms - Indeed Hiring Lab Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Conditions weakened in March, as employment slipped following a flat February, while hours worked barely rebounded following a sharp weather-induced drop.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Indeed Hiring Lab Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T16:12:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T16:12:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1040\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brendon Bernard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ltheissen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/#\/schema\/person\/4b5c7a64267b1cb495fb45e90277f353\"},\"headline\":\"March Labour Force Survey: Weak Numbers, While the Tariff-hit Looms\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-04T16:12:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T16:12:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/\"},\"wordCount\":275,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d341ezm4iqaae0.cloudfront.net\/hiringlaborg\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/02120526\/image.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hiringlab.org\/en-ca\/2025\/04\/04\/march-labour-force-survey-weak-numbers-while-the-tariff-hit-looms\/\",\"name\":\"March Labour Force Survey: Weak Numbers, While the Tariff-hit Looms - 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