Sat 8 Mar 2008
07:00 03/07 (CEP News) Ottawa – Canada’s employment market hurtled past the expectations of analysts for a second straight month in February, adding 43,300 new jobs or nearly 15 times the consensus forecast of analysts.
Statistics Canada reported Friday that all the February growth was accounted for by the private sector, with Ontario’s construction industry leading the way. Full-time employment rose by 49,500 while 6,200 part-time positions disappeared during the month.
The gains came after similar growth of 46,400 jobs in January and brought the total number of new jobs created over the past 12 months to 361,000, or 2.2%. The consensus estimate of analysts was for a net gain of 3,000 jobs in February.
The additional jobs were enough to hold the unemployment rate steady at its 33-year low of 5.8% while the employment rate – the measure of Canadians working as a percentage of the total population aged 15 and over – soared to a new record high of 63.9%.
Ontario added 46,200 net jobs in the month, with much smaller gains reported in Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The other five provinces reported modest job losses, including 5,000 in Alberta and 2,000 in British Columbia.
The country’s hard-pressed manufacturing sector gave up 23,700 more jobs in February, bringing total losses over the last 12 months to 106,000 but the losses were largely offset by a gain of 20,800 construction jobs. StatsCan said manufacturing now represents 11.6% of total employment in Canada, down from 15% at the end of 2002.
Overall the goods producing sector lost 12,500 positions in February, while the service-producing sector added 55,800 jobs. The biggest gainers on the service side were public administration (+15,800), professional, scientific and technical services (+15,600) and trade (+14,100).
Average wages increased by a hefty 4.9% on an annual basis in February, the third straight month at that rate and the seventh month in a row that the figure has been at or above 4%.
Despite February job losses, employment in Alberta was up 3% or 58,000 from a year earlier, holding the western province’s unemployment rate at 3.5%, the lowest in the country. Saskatchewan and B.C. both reported an unemployment rate of 4.1% while Manitoba’s rate was 4.2%.
In Atlantic Canada, the jobless rate varied from a low of 7.7% in Nova Scotia to 13.1% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The unemployment rate in Ontario was down two ticks to 6.1% and in Quebec it edged up to 7% from 6.8% in January.
By Geoff Matthews, gmatthews@economicnews.ca, edited by Stephen Huebl, shuebl@economicnews.ca
(END) ©CEP Newswires - ©CEP News Ltd. 2008. All Rights Reserved. www.economicnews.ca
Related recent stories
Related Alberta Jobs:
- Labour Force Survey
- Canadian jobless rate falls to 33-year low of 5.8 per cent in January
- Alberta Leads in Unemployment
- 2008 Employment Report Highlights Alberta Job Focus
- Manufacturing Job Losses Frustrate Ontario
