Net job gain

Canada adds jobs for 10th straight month with boost in full-time work

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 in September after Canada added 10,000 net new jobs, including 112,000 full-time positions.

The unemployment rate in Waterloo Region rose to 4.5 per cent from 4.4 per cent.

The rise in full-time work more than offset a drop of 102,000 part-time 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 goods-producing 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, the report said.