WATCH ABOVE: The NDP’s Peter Julian went on the attack Friday during question period – wondering why the Conservative government continues to allow employment numbers to fall.
Canadian payrolls shed 1,000 positions in February, Statistics Canada said Friday, a better than expected showing as most economy watchers were calling for deeper job losses amid continued declines in oil prices.
It appears, however, a cratering of global oil prices is finally catching up with Alberta’s labour market, the epicentre of Canada’s formidable energy sector and by far the biggest engine of job growth in recent years.
Nationally, the unemployment rate rose two-tenths of a percentage point to 6.8 per cent last month as more people were encouraged enough to look for work but failed to find it.
Economists were calling for February job numbers to show a loss of 5,000 positions across the economy. “Hiring probably stalled in February as the economy likely downshifted,” BMO economists said before the Statscan release.
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The flat reading from federal statistics agency follows on a better-than-expected showing in job growth in January, when a gain of 35,400 positions was reported.
Alberta hit
Still, a sharp drop in global oil prices in recent months has begun to trickle through to the employment picture, experts said. The jobless rate in Alberta shot eight tenths of point higher to 5.3 per cent as the oil producing province shed 14,000 jobs.
The Alberta job market held up surprisingly well in January, despite oil prices falling in half since the end of the summer — a drop that’s led to layoffs at oil patch projects.
MORE: Alberta job market keeps rolling in spite of oil shock
As a whole, the resource sector (which oil and gas jobs are lumped into) declined by 17,000 positions across the country, as other oil dependent regions, like Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, saw resource-related declines.
The report is clearly “conveying the early stages of the headwinds to the economy from weaker oil prices,” CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld said.
“Overall this wasn’t good news for the Canadian economy, but news that was largely expected.”
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