Canada adds 54,000 jobs

Canada: Canada added 54,000 net jobs in July, pushing the unemployment rate down 0.2 percentage points to 5.8 percent, the government said Friday.

The increase in employment was driven by the public sector, and all of the new jobs were part-time, while 28,000 full-time jobs were shed in the month, said Statistics Canada.

“We’ll need to take the numbers with a grain of salt,” commented CIBC Economics analyst Royce Mendes.

“While a big increase in jobs brings this series more in line with what we’ve seen from other indicators this year, the details leave us somewhat skeptical that the move won’t be at least partly reversed in August,” he said in a research note.

“Still, the labour market remains at or near full employment, and will do its part to justify a Bank of Canada rate hike in the months ahead,” he added.

The Bank of Canada raised its key lending rate in July by 0.25 percentage points to 1.50 percent. It was the first hike since January and aimed at containing inflation.

A few days later, the government statistical agency reported that rising rising gasoline and food prices had pushed up inflation to 2.5 percent in June, hitting a six-year record.

On Friday, Statistics Canada said employment rose in a number of services-producing industries: educational services; health care and social assistance; information, culture and recreation; and the “other services” industry.

In contrast, employment fell in most goods-producing sectors, specifically manufacturing, construction and natural resources.

Most of the new jobs went to women and were concentrated in three provinces: British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland.

AFP