Economy adds 22,000 jobs
TAVIA GRANT
Friday, May 05, 2006
The Canadian economy created a greater-than-expected 22,000 jobs in April as the struggling manufacturing sector surprisingly added to payrolls, Statistics Canada said Friday.
The jobless rate edged up a notch to 6.4 per cent, after sitting at a 31-year low, as more people looked for work.
So far this year, the economy has added 124,000 jobs, double the pace of growth in the first four months of last year. April's gains came on the back of surprising strength among factories, which added 24,500 jobs last month following months of declines.
While the sector has shed 165,000 positions since the end of 2002, “the recent decline in manufacturing employment pales in comparison to the recession of the early 1990s, when employment fell 329,000 over the same span of time,” the report said.
Most of Canada's new jobs continued to be in full-time positions, with Ontario adding jobs for the second month in a row.
The share of employed adult women hit a record 58 per cent last month. “At 2.2 per cent, the pace of growth for this group over the last 12 months is now well in excess of that for adult men,” the report said. The labour participation rate is also near a record high, it added.
Wages rose at a more modest pace last month. The average hourly wage in April was 3.1 per cent higher than a year ago, still outstripping the 2.2-per-cent rate of inflation as measured by the consumer price index.
Hourly wage rate growth continues to be highest in Alberta's tight labour market, at 6.8 per cent.
For the second straight month, the bulk of the employment gains were in Ontario.
“A settlement of the labour dispute affecting Ontario colleges may have contributed to a decline in youth employment,” Statscan said. “As classes resumed, this may have left less time for college students to work at a paid job in April.”
Ontario's employment has growth 1.7 per cent over the past year, led by new jobs in services industries such as business, building, educational and retail trade.
While job creation in Alberta and B.C. paused in April, they still outpace the nation so far this year.
The Atlantic provinces also benefited from employment gains in April, with more people working in both Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island.
Newfoundland and Labrador's jobless rate, however, rose to 15.9 per cent — the highest in the country — as more people entered the labour force.
Retailers added 20,000 people to payrolls in April, especially in British Columbia.
The only sector with a significant decline was transportation and warehousing, with 15,000 fewer jobs.
Economists had expected 15,000 new jobs for the month with the jobless rate holding steady at 6.3 per cent, a 31-year low.
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