Ottawa and Gatineau are a tale of two cities when it comes to jobless rate
Times better on Quebec side of the river
When it comes to the job market, Ottawa and Gatineau have been moving in opposite directions.
While the capital region’s overall jobless rate climbed to 5.9 per cent in June from 5.7 per cent in May despite the addition of 2,000 net new jobs, all the bad stuff was happening on the Ottawa side of the river.
Here’s how Statistics Canada broke down the numbers on Friday. In Ottawa, the jobless rate jumped to 6.1 per cent in June from 5.8 per cent in May, reflecting the addition of 1,700 job seekers and the loss of 100 jobs.
Meanwhile, Gatineau’s unemployment rate slipped a notch to 5.5 per cent in June from 5.6 per cent, courtesy of 2,200 net new jobs offset by the addition of a smaller number of job hunters.
These statistics been adjusted to eliminate seasonal influences.
It’s the second month in a row that Gatineau has outperformed Ottawa in the job market. While the two cities have a history of exchanging the lead, it’s the largest relative gap in favour of Gatineau since late 2013.
It’s not clear precisely what’s causing the divergence though an important clue can be found in federal government employment data. Some caution is required here because job numbers by sector are unadjusted for seasonal variation. Nevertheless StatCan reported Friday there was a drop of 4,000 Ottawa residents employed by the federal government in June while the total in Gatineau was flat.
StatCan surveys households, not workplaces, which means this data says little about which federal departments are reducing the size of their workforce. The numbers also include some contractors who work on-site alongside government employees.
Going back one year, the picture is even more dramatic. The number of Ottawa residents working for the federal government in June 2016 was just shy of 89,000. Despite last month’s drop, the current tally is 109,400.
In Gatineau, the number residents who depended on the federal government for their paycheque last month was 40,500 — up little more than 1,000 from a year earlier.
The huge swings on the Ottawa side of the river have heavily influenced the region’s overall jobless rate. When the government hired thousands of Ottawa residents last fall and early this year, the city’s jobless rate bottomed out at 5.0 per cent in March.
More recently, the trend has gone the other way.
In other sectors across the region, there were significant increases in employment from May to June in wholesale and retail trade (up 3,600), finance, insurance and real estate (up 2,700) and construction (up 1,800).
The tech sector employed 46,900 in June, up 900 from May. A year ago, the tally was 44,500.
StatCan reported declines in professional services (2,500) and hotel & food services (2,800). Most other sectors recorded minor variations.
Nationally, the Canadian labour market beat expectations yet again last month by adding 45,300 positions, Statistics Canada said Friday.
The new jobs were four times the average economists’ expectations. The vast majority of the new jobs in June were in part-time work, although the number of full-time positions also rose.
The numbers nudged the national unemployment rate down to 6.5 per cent from 6.6 per cent the previous month.