B.C. adds 33,000 jobs, unemployment rate falls to 10-year low
Employment in B.C. was up last month, as the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in a decade.
Statistics Canada said Friday that B.C. added 33,000 jobs in September — 26,000 of them full time.
Statistics Canada analyst Marton Lovei said gains were made in both the service and goods-producing sectors, with increases in manufacturing, and accommodation and food services.
There were also more health care and social assistance, agriculture, and transportation and warehousing jobs.
“There was relatively broad increases,” he said, noting that only one sector had a decline and that was in business, building, and other support services.
The unemployment rate also fell 1.1 percentage points to 4.2 per cent, the lowest rate since June 2008.
In Metro Vancouver, the unemployment rate was also down slightly, to 4.5 per cent from 4.7 per cent in August.
There were job losses in the first half of the year, so it looks like there is some recovery happening, said Lovei.
Nationally, Statistics Canada reported that Canada’s job market gained 63,000 positions, edging the unemployment rate lower to 5.9 per cent, and offsetting job losses in August.
September’s increase in employment was largely driven by gains in part-time work, with part-time jobs up by around 80,000, the agency said in its monthly labour force survey.
Economists had estimated the country would add 25,000 jobs in September, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
The job gains were also almost entirely in Ontario and B.C., with little change in the other provinces.
The latest monthly report from Statistics Canada indi- cates the jobs market remains volatile, after August saw a decline of more than 51,000 positions, raising the unemployment rate to 6.0 per cent, after two months of increases
On a year-over-year basis, Canada gained 222,000 jobs since September 2017.
South of the border, the unemployment rate in the United States dropped more than expected, to 3.7 per cent in September from 3.9 per cent the previous month, as 134,000 jobs were created, well below analyst predictions of 185,000.
Statistics Canada also reported the Canadian international merchandise trade balance improved in August, recording a surplus for the first time since December 2016.
It said imports fell by 2.5 per cent and exports declined 1.1 per cent, producing a surplus of $526 million compared with July’s $189 million trade deficit.
Taken together, the jobs and trade reports paint a rosier economic picture than anticipated, increasing the likelihood that the Bank of Canada will increase its trendsetting interest rate later this month, said BMO Financial Group chief economist Doug Porter.
“The big picture is that the economy overall is looking a bit better than anticipated, with the bias now squarely to the upside on growth,” Porter headlined in a note to clients.
But the fact the job gains were part time, and the trade surplus was the result of declines in imports and exports, takes some shine off the numbers, said CIBC Capital Markets’ Royce Mendes.
Statistics Canada’s monthly labour force survey found that all of the job gains in September were made by workers in the core 25-to-54 age range with virtually no change in youth employment. September’s youth unemployment rate stood at 11.0 per cent, up by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.