Statistics Canada says British Columbia added 1,800 jobs in August, but the unemployment rate edged up by 0.2 per cent to 6.1 per cent as more people were looking for work. The province shed 14,400 full time positions, but that was offset by gaining 16,200 part time jobs.
Andrew Fields, an analyst with Statistics Canada, said the numbers are not statistically significant and the economy remained flat from July to August. Year over year, job numbers in B.C. were up in the manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, health care, and social assistance sectors. The industries that have taken a hit the past year are warehousing and retail trade, finance, and real estate.
Nationally, the country’s unemployment rate in August remained unchanged from the previous month at 7.0 per cent. The national statistical agency reported Friday that the economy lost 11,000 mostly part-time jobs in August. That compared with the net gain of 10,000 jobs that many economists had expected.
A loss of 112,000 jobs in the private sector was only partly offset by more people turning to self-employment and continued churning out of jobs in the public sector. The unemployment rate in August remained unchanged from the previous month at 7.0 per cent.
The country’s national number-cruncher was forced to issue a major correction to its flagship employment survey last month after wrongly reporting that the economy gained a paltry 200 jobs in July. That number, Canadians found out a week later, was actually supposed to be 42,000.
In the latest report, Statistics Canada said fewer young people and women had jobs in August. The number of people between the ages of 15 and 24 working fell by 20,000 during the month. Employment fell by 18,000 among women aged 25 to 54. Men, however, fared better. The number of men between the ages of 25 to 54 with jobs rose by 36,000 in August.
Employment rose in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but fell in Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta — which, to one economist at least, was a sign that Canada’s economy struggled to churn out jobs.
Last week, the central bank held its key interest rate steady at one per cent, indicating it does not foresee enough of a change in Canada’s economic fortunes to adjust the rate from the same level it has held for the last four years.
Source: Vancouver Sun
