Unemployment up slightly in November

OTTAWA—The Canadian economy shed 10,700 net jobs last month and the unemployment rate nudged up slightly to 6.6 per cent, the latest labour-market survey said December 5.

However, the overall employment change recorded by Statistics Canada for November was so narrow it fell within the study’s margin of error, making it statistically insignificant.

The monthly data for November followed healthy back-to-back employment increases of 43,100 jobs in October and 74,100 in September. The October rise had dropped the unemployment rate to 6.5 per cent, it’s lowest level since November 2008.

Looking back over the last 12 months, the federal agency found there were 146,000 net new jobs across the country.

The market lost 45,600 private-sector jobs last month and added 22,600 positions in the public sector. Meanwhile, the number of self-employed workers moved up by 12,300 jobs.

By industry, retail and wholesale trade lost 41,600 jobs in November, while there were 32,900 fewer positions in professional, scientific and technical services. But even with these declines, both sectors had changed little over the past year.

The youth unemployment rate for November increased by 0.4 percentage points to 13 per cent, but the survey found 56,400 more young people were working compared to the year before.

Provincially, Ontario dropped 33,900 net jobs in November, which pushed its unemployment rate up half a percentage point to seven per cent.

The biggest provincial gain was detected in Quebec, where 19,600 net new jobs were added last month.

The marginal November rise in the unemployment rate matched projections of economists, who had also expected the economy to add 5,000 jobs, according to Thomson Reuters.

The consecutive increases in September and October marked the first time since December 2012 that the agency’s see-saw jobs survey recorded two straight months of employment growth outside the margin of error.