Canada Added 54,000 Jobs This Month – Statistics Canada
The Canadian economy added 54,000 jobs in September, bringing the rate of unemployment down to 5.5 per cent from 5.7 per cent, in the latest reports by Statistics Canada. The gains were mostly featured in full-time jobs, the agency’s Labour Force Survey reveals. There are about 456,000 more jobs in Canada than in previous years, taking employment up 2.4 per cent.
The employment rate went up in Nova Scotia and Ontario but held steady in the rest of Canada. Growth was evenly distributed between men and women of core working age between twenty-four (24) and Fifty-four (54). Employment in social assistance and health care accounted for 30,000 of the new jobs. Year after year, employment in this sector has increased by 108,000. Accommodation and food services also saw improvements, adding 23,000 jobs in the September month. Employment is little changed in the sector over the past year.
In the private sector, September jobs remain steady, by the number of employees remains up 283,000 in the past year.
“Canada recorded another strong overall boost in employment in September,” said Brendon Bernard, analyst for job site Indeed Canada, in a written statement. “Gains were triggered by the more volatile self-employment and public sectors, while the private-sector employees rates declined after a spike in August.
“The increase was big enough to move up the working-age employment rate 0.2 percentage points to 74.7 per cent, displacing May as the highest rate on record.”
Big gains for Nova Scotia, Ontario
Majority of the growth was focused in Ontario, where there were 41,000 new, mostly full-time jobs last month, bringing the rate of unemployment down to 5.3 per cent. In Nova Scotia, employment increased by 3,200 jobs, taking the higher-than-average unemployment rate to 7.2 per cent.
Employment was unchanged in other provinces in Canada, but there were growths in the unemployment rate in Alberta (down 0.6 percentage points to 6.6 per cent) and Newfoundland and Labrador province (down 1.6 percentage points to 11.5 per cent). Wages also saw a surge in September. The average hourly rate increased to $28.13 from $27.66, an increase of 1.7 per cent.
“Wage growth was more of a positive surprise in today’s numbers. Hourly earnings growth increased at perhaps exaggerated rates earlier in the second quarter, but looked to be slowing down last month,” said Bernard. “But the pace reaccelerated in September to 4.3 per cent from one year earlier. “Should other wage figures follow, it could be a signal that Canadian incomes are ready to show improvements in step with the number of jobs.”
Reason to ‘wait and see’ on interest rates?
James Marple, senior research and analyst for TD Economics, said:
“We are running out of superlatives to explain Canadian job market performance.”
While global economic volatility stemming from factors like the U.S.-China trade war continues to blur the outlook, Marple said the Canadian labour market is sending a positive signal.
“Ongoing positive growth, with a wide dispersion across regions, alongside accelerating wage increases should give pause to expectations for the Bank of Canada to follow its peers in cutting interest rates. If anything, this puts the central bank back in expectation mode.”
In August, the labour market report found Canada gained 81,100 jobs, most of them part-time. This is the penultimate report from the national statistician’s monthly Labour Force Survey before canadian citizens head to the polls Oct. 21.
