Ontario leads the way in surprise jobs boom
by The Canadian Press
The unemployment rate for September fell by 0.2 percentage points to 6.8 per cent—its lowest since December 2008
OTTAWA—Canada’s economy generated 74,100 net new jobs last month, knocking the unemployment rate down to its lowest level in nearly six years, according to the most recent report from Statistics Canada.
The unemployment rate for September fell by 0.2 percentage points to 6.8 per cent—its lowest since December 2008.
Economists had expected the economy to create 20,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate to hold steady at seven per cent, according to Thomson Reuters.
Statistics Canada’s latest labour-market data found 69,300 of the new jobs were full-time work.
The report says the bulk of the jobs were created in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, while the other provinces saw only small changes.
Ontario added the most jobs with 24,700 new positions, dropping its unemployment rate down by three-tenths of a percentage point to 7.1 per cent.
New Brunswick was the only province that saw its unemployment increase last month—rising 0.9 percentage points to 9.6 per cent.
The report found that more people were employed in food services and accommodation, health care and social assistance, construction, natural resources, finance, insurance, real estate and leasing.
On the other hand, the agency says the economy lost jobs last month in educational services.
Statistics Canada says the last time the economy added such a large number of jobs was May 2013 when it created 89,500 positions, the majority of which were full time.
The September gain follows a loss of 11,000 jobs for August.
