London’s jobless rate has risen for the third straight month.
Stats Canada says the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent last month, up from 6.5 per cent in January.
The jobless rate stood at 6.2 per cent in December.
Even though London-St. Thomas added 1,900 jobs in February that was offset by an increase to both the labour force and the number of people claiming unemployment.
2,400 people entered the labour force while an extra 500 people claimed unemployment.
The labour participation rate in London showed improvement for the fifth straight month. It increased to 60.6 per cent in February, it stood at 59.2 per cent last October. Despite the increase, London is still well below the provincial average (64.6%) and the national average (65.6%).
Nationally, the economy added 15,400 net new jobs last month as the unemployment rate slipped to 5.8 per cent.
Statistics Canada’s latest labour force survey also says the job gains in February were driven by an increase of 50,300 in public-sector jobs.
Compared with 12 months earlier, the overall job market added 282,500 positions for an increase of 1.5 per cent, and all of that year-over-year growth came from full-time work.
For February, the report also found that average hourly wage growth, which has been scrutinized by the Bank of Canada ahead of interest-rate decisions, stayed solid at 3.1 per cent.
In Ontario, employment was little changed in February with the unemployment rate settling at 5.5 per cent. Over the past 12 months, Ontario’s jobless rate has fallen by nearly a full percentage point. It stood at 6.2 per cent at this time last year.
With files from the Canadian Press