Economy adds 64K jobs in September, unemployment rate holds steady at 5.5%
CTV
The Canadian economy added more jobs than expected last month, but with the gains driven by a seasonal spike in education employment and an increase in part-time work, economists say the job market is weaker than it looks.
The Canadian economy added more jobs than expected last month, but with the gains driven by a seasonal spike in education employment and an increase in part-time work, economists say the job market is weaker than it looks.
Statistics Canada released its September labour force survey Friday morning, which shows employment rose by 64,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate continued to hold steady at 5.5 per cent for the third month in a row.
"While the headline figures will be grabbing most of the attention, we'd caution on getting too excited. Almost all the gains were in the historically volatile education sector," said TD director of economics James Orlando in a client note.
"Furthermore, most of the job gains were in part-time employment, causing the number of hours worked to decline. These details should throw some cold water on a seemingly hot jobs report."
More people were working in educational services and transportation and warehousing while jobs were shed in finance, insurance, real estate rental and leasing, information and recreation, and construction.
Canada's labour market has cooled over the last year as interest rates have risen: job vacancies have fallen and the unemployment rate has edged up.
