But unemployment up as people flood labour market
Paul Luke
Province
B.C.’s jobs stats have been boosted by such construction projects as Vancouver’s convention centre expansion. Photograph by : Gerry Kahrmann, The Province
B.C. racked up the largest jobs gain in Canada last month but the province’s unemployment rate crept upward as job-seekers poured into the labour market.
B.C.’s unemployment rate rose to 4.3 per cent from 4.1 per cent in March as its participation rate — the percentage of working-age people who have jobs or are seeking them — rose to a 13-year-high of 66.9 per cent, Statistics Canada said.
The province’s employment rate reached a record 64 per cent, thanks to the 14,700 jobs B.C. created in March, StatsCan’s latest labour report shows.
More than half of those new jobs were full-time, according to StatsCan data.
“The increase from the previous month came in construction and manufacturing, and in some services sectors, but there was a drop in financial and real-estate services,” Service Canada economist Rod Smelser said in an analysis.
Year-over-year, B.C. has created about 55,000 jobs. The province’s robust construction industry, which generated 28,000 jobs over this period, has been the main engine of that growth.
Employment in that sector stands at a record 219,000.
“There have been significant year-to-year employment declines in two areas — financial and real-estate services, down by 15,000 jobs, and manufacturing, down by 22,000 jobs,” Smelser said.
The Lower Mainland’s jobless rate, based on a three-month average, was unchanged at 3.7 per cent last month. Vancouver Island‘s edged up to 5.2 per cent from 5.0 per cent.
Nationally, the jobless rate rose unexpectedly to six per cent from 5.8 per cent as job creation slowed to 14,600–down from 43,300 in February.
The upward swing in the jobless rate came from more people entering the labour force to look for work. Canada‘s participation rate reached a new high of 68 per cent in March.
March’s job-creation numbers were in line with most economists’ forecasts but many did not expect an increase in the jobless rate.
“The bounce in the unemployment rate is as much a reflection of the tidal wave of people pouring into the workforce as a sign of weakness in the job market,”said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
In the U.S., employers cut payrolls for a third consecutive month in March and the jobless rate jumped to a 21/2 year high, adding more evidence that a housing downturn and credit crisis may have pushed the economy into recession.
The U.S. jobless rate jumped to 5.1 per cent from 4.8 per cent, the highest since September 2005.
Non-farm employment fell by 80,000 jobs in March, the biggest decline in five years.
Adding to the bleak picture, the department said a combined 152,000 jobs were lost in January and February, compared with a previous estimate of 85,000.
