Residential construction activity continues to be slowed by declining demand for multi-unit projects in Ontario and British Columbia, while non-residential activity has benefitted from the start of major hospital projects in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The national construction unemployment rate reached its lowest level of the calendar year at 4.4% in July 2025, as builders in many regions of the country continued to work on large volumes of non-residential projects.
Data from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey for July 2025 finds construction employment up slightly (+1.2%, +20,400 workers) compared with July 2024. Over the same period, the industry’s labour force gained 32,400 workers, rising by 1.8%. These factors combined to elevate the industry’s overall unemployment rate by 0.6 percentage points, to 4.4%. Despite the increase, this rate is the lowest seen since October 2024.
The rise in unemployment over the last 12 months is likely due to slowing demand for residential construction. Statistics Canada reports that residential building permit values
increased by just 3.5% between June 2024 and June 2025, with a notable contraction in single-family residential construction permits (-11%). Meanwhile, although permit values for multi-unit residential construction rose by 13.2% over the same period, the data shows significant recent contractions (i.e., within the past six months) in demand occurring in the multi-family unit sectors in the Toronto and Vancouver census metropolitan areas.
In contrast, activity in the non-residential construction sector continues to perform at an elevated level. Again comparing building permit data for June 2024 and June 2025, Statistics Canada shows that non-residential construction intentions increased by 24.1%, with significant year-over-year gains reported in Alberta (136.1%), Saskatchewan (86.8%), and Ontario (+17.2%). Recent growth in non-residential activity in these provinces appears to have been driven by the start of major hospital projects in all three provinces (Niagara, Ontario; Red Deer, Alberta; and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan) as well as across all three provinces’ respective non-residential sectors more broadly.
Turning to employment among genders, the national data finds that gains were most pronounced among females between July 2024 and July 2025, where total employment rose by 17,100 workers, or 7.5%. Growth was greatest among the core-aged demographic of workers aged 25 to 54 years, where employment rose by 8%, or 12,700 workers. The youngest female cohort (i.e., those aged 15 to 24 years) saw a growth of 7,400 workers, or 29.4%, while the eldest cohort of workers aged 55 years and older saw employment contract by 7.1%.
Construction employment among males rose by just 0.2% year over year, with the greatest gain reported among core-aged workers (+16,400 workers; +1.6%) and a significant contraction reported in the youngest male cohort at -13,100 workers, or -6.7%. Employment among males aged 55 years and older was virtually unchanged.
Across the provinces, employment gains were greatest in Ontario at +14,100 workers (+2.3%) year over year, while Saskatchewan reported the next-largest absolute gain at +6,500 workers (+12.8%). Only two provinces reported construction employment contractions between July 2024 and July 2025: Quebec (-9,100, -2.7%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (-2,200, -10.5%).
Provincial unemployment rates varied from a high of 7.5% in Newfoundland and Labrador (with rates of 7.4% and 7.0% reported in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, respectively) to a low of 2.7% in Quebec.
Construction Key Indicators
