Richard Kitts..Great news on the job numbers and hopefully this will continue as mortgage rates remain low, oil prices begin to increase and consumer confidence slowly rising. Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge jobless rate increased slightly from 5.0 to 5.2, however it is still much lower than the National Average of 6.8%.
The agency’s January employment survey showed an increase of 32,400 part-time positions and a smaller gain of 15,800 jobs in the more-desirable category of full-time work. Both numbers, however, were too low to be deemed statistically significant.
The report also found that private-sector jobs rose 32,400 between December and January, compared with an increase of 7,700 public-sector positions.
The increases helped drop the unemployment rate last month to 6.8 per cent from 6.9 per cent.
Economists had projected the job numbers to stay unchanged last month and for the unemployment rate to hold at 6.9 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters.
The vast majority of the new jobs — or 42,600 positions — were created in the services sector, with the bulk of those concentrated in areas such as finance, insurance, real estate, business management, transportation and warehousing.
The number of factory jobs in Canada increased by 5,600 positions last month.
The category of self-employed positions added 8,200 last month while paid employee jobs climbed by 40,000.
The country’s job market has seen gains in five out of the last six monthly reports.
In December, the overall labour force expanded by 53,700 net jobs compared to the previous month.
Looking back 12 months, Canada gained 276,100 net new jobs overall with the addition of 86,200 full-time positions and 189,900 part-time jobs.
Among the provinces, Ontario gained the most jobs last month with 28,800 new positions, an increase of 0.4 per cent compared with December. Most of those new jobs — or 23,500 positions — were part time.
The overall number of jobs in Alberta last month was essentially unchanged compared to December, but the province did shed 24,300 full-time positions.
The report was stronger for British Columbia, which gained 11,200 net new positions last month thanks to a month-over-month increase of 25,400 full-time jobs.
Statistics Canada also found the national youth unemployment rate rose in January to 13.3 per cent, up from 12.6 per cent..
Here is a quick look at January employment (previous month in brackets):
- Unemployment rate: 6.8 per cent (6.9)
- Employment rate: 61.4 per cent (61.3)
- Labour force participation rate: 65.9 per cent (65.8)
- Number unemployed: 1,324,400 (1,341,600)
- Number working: 18,273,300 (18,225,000)
- Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rate: 13.3 per cent (12.6)
- Men (25 plus) unemployment rate: 6.0 per cent (6.4)
- Women (25 plus) unemployment rate: 5.3 per cent (5.4)
Here are the jobless rates last month by province (previous month in brackets):
- Newfoundland and Labrador 13.8 per cent (15.1)
- Prince Edward Island 9.8 (10.5)
- Nova Scotia 7.7 (8.3)
- New Brunswick 8.9 (9.3)
- Quebec 6.2 (6.5)
- Ontario 6.4 (6.4)
- Manitoba 6.1 (6.3)
- Saskatchewan 6.4 (6.6)
- Alberta 8.8 (8.5)
- British Columbia 5.6 (5.8)
Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities. It cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. Here are the jobless rates last month by city (previous month in brackets):
- St. John’s, N.L. 9.6 per cent (9.8)
- Halifax 5.9 (6.1)
- Moncton, N.B. 8.0 (7.8)
- Saint John, N.B. 7.8 (8.1)
- Saguenay, Que. 7.6 (7.3)
- Quebec 4.3 (4.4)
- Sherbrooke, Que. 5.5 (5.4)
- Trois-Rivieres, Que. 7.1 (7.3)
- Montreal 6.6 (6.7)
- Gatineau, Que. 5.5 (6.0)
- Ottawa 5.7 (6.1)
- Kingston, Ont. 5.7 (5.8)
- Peterborough, Ont. 5.3 (5.5)
- Oshawa, Ont. 5.1 (5.2)
- Toronto 7.0 (6.8)
- Hamilton, Ont. 5.9 (5.8)
- St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 6.4 (6.4)
- Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ont. 5.2 (5.0)
- Brantford, Ont. 4.2 (4.7)
- Guelph, Ont. 5.5 (4.4)
- London, Ont. 6.9 (6.9)
- Windsor, Ont. 5.4 (5.7)
- Barrie, Ont. 7.5 (7.4)
- Sudbury, Ont. 8.0 (8.4)
- Thunder Bay, Ont. 6.2 (6.2)
- Winnipeg 6.7 (6.9)
- Regina 5.5 (5.4)
- Saskatoon 7.5 (7.5)
- Calgary 9.8 (10.1)
- Edmonton 8.1 (7.5)
- Kelowna, B.C. 8.3 (8.7)
- Abbotsford, B.C. 6.2 (5.9)
- Vancouver 4.9 (5.1)
- Victoria 4.6 (5.0)
Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press
Published Friday, February 10, 2017 8:41AM EST
Last Updated Friday, February 10, 2017 10:40AM EST
