OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the economy churned out nearly 43,000 net new jobs last month, shaving the unemployment rate one tenth of a point to 6.9 per cent.
The employment increase, although mostly part-time, was the best in months and about double what economists had anticipated.
The other surprise in the Statistics Canada report was that the vast majority of the new jobs went to young Canadians, the 15-24 age group that has mostly been left behind during the recovery.
READ MORE: Canada’s jobless rate holds steady at post-recession low
If there was a soft spot in the report, besides the preponderance of part-time work, it was that almost all the new jobs were in the public sector, while new private sector hiring was limited to 3,900.
Still, the March numbers will be seen as a positive to the economy, which had been having difficulty gathering momentum during the unusually cold winter.
Regionally, most of the new jobs went to Canada’s most populous provinces, with British Columbia adding 18,300, Quebec 15,100 and Ontario 13,400. There were minor job losses in Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
.
Comments