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National unemployment rate drops, rises regionally as more people look for work

Dec 10, 2018 | 11:00 AM

An uptick of new jobs in Canada last month helped knock the nation’s unemployment rate to its lowest level since Statistics Canada started tracking comparable data in 1976.

In its monthly labour force survey, the national statistics agency said the country added 94,000 positions, driven heavily by the addition of 89,900 full-time jobs, pushing the unemployment rate down to 5.6 per cent from 5.8 – a previous 40 year low.

The gains came in six provinces, led by Alberta and Quebec, growing by 24,000 and 26,000, respectively. 

In Saskatchewan, employment rose by 5,500 positions, knocking the unemployment rate down 0.7 points to 5.5 per cent, the second decrease in three months. The number of full-time jobs ticked up by 4,000, while part-time employment rose by 1,500. Year-over-year, 15,000 more people are employed in the province. 

For Prince Albert and Northern Saskatchewan, which includes numbers for our region, the unemployment rate rose year-over-year to 6.7 per cent from 6.5. This comes mainly due to more people participating in the labour force, up to 65.5 per cent from 64.7, or 104,100 people, compared to 103,200. The number of people employed is up from November 2017 to 97,400 from 96,700.

But in a note to clients Friday, CIBC senior economist Royce Mendes wrote how the “random-number generator” that is the survey “spat out” a massive reading for November.

While he wrote that the “Canadian economy sorely needed a positive data release” after a string of soft numbers and the news of oil production cuts in Alberta, “the survey is notoriously volatile and some of the details in the latest report appear questionable,” he wrote, adding “there’s only so much that can be gleaned about any actual pickup in underlying economic activity.”

BUDDING INDUSTRY

The November labour force survey was the first to include cannabis-related job numbers in the wake of legalization on Oct. 17. StatsCan said the number of people employed in this industry last month was 10,400, up over 266 per cent or 7,500 positions from 12 months earlier.

A majority of these jobs, 58 per cent, were in the agricultural industry. The remainder were spread across various other industries like education, health care and retail. The average hourly wage for employees in cannabis-related jobs was $29.58, higher than the national average of $27.03. Around 83 per cent of these positions are private sector roles.

More men than women are working in the cannabis industry, the agency said, split 79 to 21 per cent.

 

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr