Biggest Jobs Gain In A Decade

Great numbers coming out of Eastern Canada, let's hope that this is the start of a trend and that employment starts to accelerate. Our numbers out west are weaker than expected but not surprising with the late spring/construction season.

Could we be starting to a rebound from Quebec and Ontario? Too soon to say but this is a good start, if we see this carry on for a few more months then we may be onto something.

I still feel that our country needs to figure out what to do with Atlantic Canada though. In the States the work force is much more mobile, they will go where the jobs are. Here in Canada our safety net system has become so liberalized that people will spend half of their lives unemployed or severely under-employed in Atlantic Canada while other jurisdictions are crying for workers. It may be high time the government reams in our employment insurance system so that it encourages more mobility. The rest of Canada should not have to continually pumps billions of dollars into economies in Atlantic Canada that cannot sustain itself. Their unemployment rate is typically 12%, that in no way is sustainable you simply need more employment in order to sustain the services for everyone who is needs them.

This may sound mean and all but some times some bad tasting medicine is the best for you. These people don't want to have to leave but should they be held up by the safety net for life? I don't think this is what the system was put in place for. It is not good for them and their families, nor good for local , provincial and federal governments to keep propping them up. Make it harder to continually be on un-employment year in year out and make it easier for them to get better training and maybe some help with moving to jurisdictions where the jobs are. There is no reason in this nation that our unemployment rate should ever be 7%, we should be trying for 3-4% tops.

Canada posts biggest jobs gain in more than a decade

TAVIA GRANT - ECONOMICS REPORTER

The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Jun. 07 2013, 8:33 AM EDT

Last updated Friday, Jun. 07 2013, 10:31 AM EDT

The Canadian economy churned out 95,000 jobs last month, the second-biggest monthly gain on record, mostly in full-time positions in the private sector.

The jump in job creation is the largest since August, 2002, and sent the country’s jobless rate down a notch to 7.1 per cent in May, Statistics Canada said Friday. The increase was eight times what economists had expected.

The report shows a comeback in the private sector, where job creation had been lacklustre in preceding two months, a reflection of shaky business confidence. Last month, construction accounted for nearly half the job gains, with the retail, trade and business support services sectors also adding to head count.

“A pleasant surprise after a string of generally soft job gains in the prior six months,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets in a note.

Jobs numbers have been volatile in recent months and one month does not make a trend. A smoothed-out average over the last half year shows gains of 19,000 a month, “indicative of a job creation engine chugging along, as opposed to revving up, noted Sonya Gulati, senior economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

She expects job creation to average 10,000 to 20,000 a month through the rest of this year.

Private companies led the way. The private sector added 94,600 positions while the public sector created 6,600 jobs. Self employment fell by 6,200. The construction sector added 42,700 jobs, the biggest gain on record.

Wage gains, though still modest, are running above the rate of inflation, with average hourly wages growing 2.3 per cent in May from last year.

Youth – a segment that has struggled in the job market – saw improvements in May. Employment among those aged 15 to 24 rose 54,400, pushing their jobless rate to 13.6 per cent from 14.5 per cent in April.

Core-aged workers saw little employment change while those over the age of 55 saw 34,000 new positions.

By province, employment rose in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, New Brunswick and Manitoba. A gain of 50,600 jobs in Ontario sent the province’s unemployment rate to 7.3 per cent, the lowest rate since November, 2008.

Unemployment rates fell in every province from Manitoba east, while they rose in the Western provinces. Saskatchewan has the lowest jobless rate in the country, at 4.5 per cent.

Compared with a year earlier, employment has grown 1.4 per cent or by 250,000, all in full-time positions.