New jobs boost greater than expected

Canada's dormant labour market sprang back to life in the new year, generating 69,200 new jobs spread across most of the country and evenly split between full time and part time, according to Statistics Canada.

However, the unemployment rate rose 2/10ths of a point to 7.8 per cent, the figures released Friday in Ottawa indicate. But that too was a sign of strength since the anomaly occurred because 106,400 more Canadians returned to the workforce.

While public-sector hiring led the way with 26,400 jobs, net new jobs in private-paid and self-employed positions were not far behind at 22,700 and 20,100, respectively, TD bank economist Derek Burleton said.

The employment boost was about four times greater than economists had expected and the largest since last April. The increase in the labour force was similarly one of the largest increases on record, BMO economist Doug Porter said.

But after last week's revision in which Statistics Canada announced it had overestimated post-recession job growth by 67,000, analysts will likely want to see a few more months of numbers before confirming a new-jobs growth spurt.

By official count at least, Canada can again be said to have recovered all the jobs lost during the recession, the only country in the G7 that can make that boast.

By way of contrast, the U.S. — the world's largest economy, created only 36,000 jobs during the same month, official data showed Friday. That's half of Canada's growth despite the economy being roughly 10 times the size, and it was far less than the 145,000 that analysts were expecting. America's employment rate still remains 5.5 per cent below its pre-recession peak.

The federal agency now says there are 327,000 more Canadians working since last January, and 467,000 more jobs since the downturn ended in July 2009.

"Notwithstanding today’s good news, the labour market still has a significant amount of healing to do," Burleton said, noting that full-time employment remains 100,000 below its pre-recession peak.

January's gains were spread among six provinces, led by Ontario with an increase of 36,300 and Alberta, which picked up 21,600. But there were also strong gains in smaller provinces — employment increased by 6,200 in Nova Scotia and 4,900 in Newfoundland and Labrador — relative to their populations.

As well, the new jobs were closely split between full time and part time, and shared among private sector, public sector and the self-employed, although more women than men found work last month, and the majority came in the service sector.

The agency said January saw good pickups in business, building and other support services, public administration and agriculture.

Manufacturing, which enjoyed a strong month in December, was flat in January, while transportation and warehousing shed 32,000 workers, and accommodation and food services lost 26,000.

more sectors here

Porter noted