Name: Labour force characteristics by industry, monthly, seasonally adjusted, last 5 months
Creator: Statistics Canada
License: https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada

Labour force characteristics by industry, monthly, seasonally adjusted, last 5 months — AI AnalysisStatistics Canada's Table 14100291 tracks four labour force characteristics across 20 NAICS industries on a monthly seasonally adjusted basis from January 1987 to February 2026, comprising 107,328 records across 312 unique time series. Over nearly 40 years, Canada's employment grew substantially whiKey Findings

Canada's national unemployment rate declined from 9.5% in January 1987 to 1.8% in February 2026, hitting a historical peak of 12.1% — most likely during the COVID-19 recession — before recovering.

Total employment across all industries ranged from approximately 3,749K to 14,920K persons over the full period, reflecting decades of long-term workforce growth punctuated by economic downturns.

The dataset's VALUE column is highly right-skewed, with an overall mean of 464.21 thousand persons but a median of just 13.60, driven by large aggregate industry totals reaching up to 22,697.7 thousand.

Unemployment (in absolute numbers) fell by nearly 872K persons over the full period, dropping from approximately 1,274K to 403K actively unemployed Canadians as of February 2026.

The Unemployment Rate varies widely at the industry level, averaging 2.3% with a standard deviation of 3.0% and a maximum of 36.8%, highlighting significant sector-specific labour market volatility.

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