By Tavia Grant, the Globe and Mail | Link to Article
Canada’s jobs market thawed in March as the pace of hiring caught up to modest economic growth.
By Tavia Grant, the Globe and Mail | Link to Article
Canada’s jobs market thawed in March as the pace of hiring caught up to modest economic growth.
The economy added a better-than-expected 42,900 jobs in March, after months of stagnant employment growth, as young people landed work and the public sector added to the head count.
The job gains, the largest in seven months, sent Canada’s jobless rate down one notch to 6.9 per cent. But smoothing out the monthly volatility, overall job growth in Canada has been “subdued” since August of last year, Statistics Canada said Friday. The six-month average for monthly job gains rose to a still-muted 10,000 from 3,000 in the prior month.
“We need more data to really see if this is a trend,” said Derek Holt, Bank of Nova Scotia’s vice-president of economics, adding that sharp swings in public-sector employment in recent months “raise some red flags,” while the quality of job gains, which tilted toward part-time work, suggest it’s too early to declare the labour market has turned the corner.
Still, Canada’s economy strengthened in the second half of last year, and separate reports have illustrated how gross domestic product bounced back in January, shaking off the effects of a major ice storm, while trade data also showed a rebound in exports. The March growth in hiring shouldn’t be too surprising, given that employment growth had been unusually weak relative to GDP.
“As such, some catch up in job growth was in store,” said Toronto-Dominion Bank deputy chief economist Derek Burleton.
Details of the jobs report were soft. Part-time positions rose by 30,100 in March while full-time jobs grew by 12,800. The country’s participation rate stayed at 66.2 per cent, its lowest level since 2001.
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