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Youth bolster employment numbersUnemployment in Canada dipped back down to 6.1% last month with some modest job creation, especially among the young. |
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 [ 2007-03-10 ] |
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Statistics Canada says the economy created 14,000 new jobs in February, pushing the unemployment rate back down from 6.2% to the 30 year low recorded in December.
But the number of people aged 15 to 24 with jobs jumped by 21,000, pushing the youth unemployment rate down to 11%, the lowest it has been since 1990.
Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist for the Bank of Montreal, said job growth is slowing, but the February numbers were "still quite impressive."
STRONG GROWTH
"We have just come off an unbelievably strong period of job growth ... so some cooling off was expected," he said.
Porter noted the job growth, especially in the manufacturing sector may have been held back by last month's strike by CN Rail workers.
Unemployment rates fell on both ends of the nation, with New Brunswick hitting a record low of 6.9% and B.C. recording its lowest rate ever, 4%.
Unemployment actually edged up in oil-rich Alberta, but Porter said that's likely due to so many easterners migrating to the province to find work.
Ontario has seen job gains for the last five months, he said, despite fears about job losses in the battered manufacturing sector.
SERVICE SECTOR JUMP
TD BANK economist David Tulk noted in his commentary yesterday that he expects job growth to average about 15,000- 20,000 per month for the rest of the year.
"It will be sufficient to continue to underpin a strong domestic economy. This will help Canada power through the headwinds created by sub-par economic growth in the United States," he said.
Most of the February job growth came in the service sector, with some losses in manufacturing jobs.
There were about 49,000 new service jobs, mainly in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing.
On a year-to-year basis across the country, there were 392,000 more people working last month than in February 2006, which equals out to be a 2.4% increase.
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