the CanadaVisa Team - 10 July, 2015
The employment figures for October have shown a decrease in Canada’s national jobless rate, which now stands at 6.5 per cent. This is the lowest rate since November, 2008.
Employers added a total of 43,100 new jobs in October, on top of the 74,100 recorded for September. In the past year, employment has grown by a moderate pace of 1 per cent, with two-thirds of that gain occurring in the past two months alone. Most of the new jobs were full-time positions, a large majority of which were filled by people between 25 and 54 years old, most of whom were women. October’s gains came in the private sector and among the self-employed, while the public sector cut jobs.
Some of the strongest gains were in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, which now has a jobless rate matching the national average for the first time since2006. The lowest jobless rate continues to be in Saskatchewan, at 3.5 per cent, followed by Alberta, at 4.5 per cent.
“While monthly job numbers can be volatile, the significant increase in the last two months indicates a positive trend,” said Minister of Finance, Joe Oliver.
Statistics Canada, the agency that released the report, noted that even though the jobless rate has been decreasing, this is not translating into higher pay. Wage gains stand at 1.9 per cent year-on-year, a figure that is below the national rate of inflation.
