Aggressive civil service hiring cuts capital region jobless rate

Aggressive hiring in the federal government helped to push down the capital region’s jobless rate to 5.7 per cent in January compared to 6.1 per cent in December, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

It’s the lowest unemployment rate in the region in more than five years. The improvement last month reflected the addition of 3,400 jobs, all of them created on the Ottawa side of the river. The region’s labour force, which includes people looking for work, increased by just 300.

The jobless rate in Ottawa alone was 5.7 per cent in January compared to 6.1 per cent in December while Gatineau’s unemployment rate fell even faster, reaching 5.5 per cent compared to 6.0 per cent in December.

In Gatineau, however, the decline was the result of a drop in the number of people looking for jobs.

StatCan reported there were 147,700 federal government employees in the capital region in January — more than 20 per cent of the total workforce and up 2,600 from December. This appears to reflect the continuation of a centralizing trend under the new Liberal administration. The number of federal government workers outside the capital region actually declined 1,800 compared to December.

The centralizing tendency is well entrenched. From January 2016 to January 2017, the number of federal government workers in the capital region jumped nearly 13 per cent (16,500) while the increase in the rest of the country was little more than three per cent (6,800).

Federal government workers in Ottawa- Gatineau now account for 41.3 per cent of the country’s total, up from 39.2 per cent a year ago.

Other sectors that gained jobs in January compared to December were health care (up 1,900) and hotels and restaurants (up 1,200). Sectors that didn’t do as well over the same period included retail (down 1,900), finance and real estate (down 1,300), construction (a decline of 800) and high-tech (off 800 as well).