Unemployment up in capital despite job boom

OTTAWA — The country’s labour market beat expectations again last month to help wash away lingering doubts that the Bank of Canada will raise its benchmark interest rate next week.

The majority of the 45,300 jobs added in June were in part-time work, although the number of fulltime positions also rose, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The fresh data, which added to a series of positive job gains over the past year, nudged the national unemployment rate down to 6.5 per cent from 6.6 per cent the previous month.

B.C. continues to have the lowest unemployment rate among the provinces after seeing big gains in Friday’s jobs report for June.

Statistics Canada said employment in B.C. rose by 20,000 last month. That helped cut the unemployment rate to 5.1 per cent from 5.6 per cent in May.

The federal agency said employment in the province has been on a strong upward trend since the spring of 2015. The province has gained 104,000 jobs over the past year.

Greater Victoria’s unemployment rate climbed slightly to 4.1 per cent in June from 3.9 per cent in May.

The capital region continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. It increased because more people looked for work in June.

A look at the year-over-year picture shows that the capital region’s total employment numbers increased by 9,700. In June of 2016, the unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent.

The largest local jump in employment, at 5,200, occurred in Greater Victoria’s construction sector. I

n June, 16,100 workers were employed in construction, up from 10,900 a year ago.

Transportation and warehousing job numbers in the capital climbed by 2,500 to a total of 8,000 in June, compared with 5,500 the previous year.

The financial, insurance, realestate and leasing category saw numbers move up by 1,900 to 9,500 in June, compared with the same month in 2016.