Boost in full-time work as jobs grow for 10th month

OTTAWA — A surge in full-time work in September fuelled a 10th-straight month of net job gains to match the economy’s longest monthly streak since the financial crisis nine years ago, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The national unemployment rate stayed at a nine-year low of 6.2 per cent i n September after Canada added 10,000 net new jobs, including 112,000 full-time positions.

The rise in full-time work more than offset a drop of 102,000 parttime jobs, but last month’s net job gain was driven by growth in public-sector employment.

The September jobs report also showed yet another improvement in the important indicator of wage growth. Compared to the year before, average hourly wages grew at the above-inflation pace of 2.2 per cent, for the biggest increase since April 2016.

The numbers show the employment increase was also concentrated in factory work as the goodsproducing sector added 10,500 jobs, compared to a loss of 500 positions in the services industry.

The survey detected a gain of 10,800 paid employee jobs, while the number of people who described themselves as self-employed, including unpaid workers in family businesses, fell by 800.

CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld said the report showed Canada’s job market was “ho-hum” last month and in line with other signals of a moderation in economic growth.

He suggested that weighs against the probability of a third interest rate hike this year from the Bank of Canada.

“Overall, the 10,000 pace is about what we would expect as a trend if GDP growth is tailing off to the two per cent range in the second half of the year, enough of a slowdown to keep the Bank of Canada on hold until 2018,” Shenfeld wrote in a research note to clients.

Statistics Canada said Ontario gained 34,700 jobs in September for its fourth monthly increase in five months and, compared to a year earlier, the province’s employment was 2.4 per cent higher. Manitoba shed 5,500 positions for its first notable decline since April 2016

Overall, the national numbers show that Canada’s year-over-year employment expanded 1.8 per cent with the addition of 319,700 net new jobs, of which more than 90 per cent were full-time positions.

The run of 10-consecutive months of job creation marked the country’s longest streak of total employment gains since February 2008.