51,600 lost jobs pushes up unemployment rate, but full-time work rises
OTTAWA — The Canadian economy lost 51,600 net jobs last month in a decrease that drove up the unemployment rate and essentially wiped out the big gain in July.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey says the jobless rate hit 6% in August, up from 5.8% in July.
Economists had expected an increase of 5,000 jobs for the month and the unemployment rate to be 5.9%, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
The employment drop last month was fuelled by a loss of 92,000 part-time positions — but on the positive side the number of full-time jobs rose by 40,400.
The August decline followed a comparable net increase of 54,100 positions in July.
Ontario experienced the biggest decrease of the provinces by far with a loss of 80,100 jobs — almost all of which were part-time positions.
Compared with 12 months earlier, national employment was up 0.9%following the addition of 171,700 jobs, including 326,100 full-time positions.
The latest report also says average hourly wage growth, which is closely watched by the Bank of Canada, continued its gradual slide last month to 2.9% after expanding 3.2% in July and 3.6% in June.
The agency says the economy lost 38,000 public-sector jobs last month, while the private sector shed 30,700 positions.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATES BY PROVINCE
Canada’s national unemployment rate was 6.0% in August. Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
— Newfoundland and Labrador 14.4% (15.4%)
— Prince Edward Island 9.3% (9.5%)
— Nova Scotia 8.4% (8.0%)
— New Brunswick 8.3% (7.5%)
— Quebec 5.6% (5.6%)
— Ontario 5.7% (5.4%)
— Manitoba 5.8% (6.0%)
— Saskatchewan 6.7% (6.6%)
— Alberta 6.7% (6.7%)
— British Columbia 5.3% (5.0%)
QUICK FACTS
A quick look at August employment (numbers from the previous month in brackets):
Unemployment rate: 6.0% (5.8%)
Employment rate: 61.4% (61.6%)
Participation rate: 65.3% (65.4%)
Number unemployed: 1,195,200 (1,160,400)
Number working: 18,630,500 (18,682,100)
Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rate: 10.9% (11.1%)
Men (25 plus) unemployment rate: 5.4% (5.2%)
Women (25 plus) unemployment rate: 5.1% (4.8%)
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