Canada sees big boost in jobs
Posted Feb 4, 2011 8:01 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s much better news than anyone expected, with January job gains three times higher than economists predicted.
Canada saw an increase of around 69,000 new jobs last month.
“This is one of the biggest increases we’ve seen in years,” Bank of Montreal Deputy Chief Economist Doug Porter tells 660News. “We also had one of the biggest inflows into the labour market, more than 100,000 people.”
Porter says that’s why Canada also saw a 0.2 per cent bump in jobless numbers to 7.8 per cent, something that can happen from time to time, albeit not very often.
The sectors that saw the biggest gains were manufacturing, agriculture and public administration.
After two consecutive months on the rise and a long recession, Porter says this could finally be manufacturing’s time to shine.
“Manufacturing actually only had a small gain in January but that followed a huge rise in December and that really does suggest that manufacturing unemployment after years and years of weakness looks to be at least turning the corner temporarily,” he says.
One of the biggest gains across the nation was in the number of women getting jobs.
Females 25 to 54-years-old and 55-plus saw an addition of 55,000 new jobs, by far the lion’s share.
“It may just be a little bit of a quirk in the data, but there’s no question in the last few years through this cycle, adult women have fared much better in the job market than adult men,” Porter says.
Alberta was one of the biggest benefactors in Friday’s announcement.
The province was second only to Ontario in net new gains, creating over 21,000 new jobs.
Calgary’s unemployment figures remain the same though, unchanged at 6 per cent.
Employment gains were also made in five other provinces; Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island.
