Canada's economy continues to churn out jobs, keeping the unemployment rate at the 33-year-old low of 6.0 per cent, Statistics Canada reports.

The number of jobs went up by 23,000 last month, but the jobless rate itself didn't budge because more people tried to enter the workforce, the agency said in a report released Friday.

The added employment pushed job gains for the first eight months to 232,000. That 1.4 per cent increase is an improvement over the 1.2 per cent gain recorded during the same period in 2006.

Most of the growth is coming in public-sector jobs and self-employment. Private sector jobs are only up 0.3 per cent since January.

Workers over age 55 accounted for much of the increase in the numbers of Canadians working last month. Women particularly benefited from these gains.

"The August employment rate for older men was its highest since 1985; the rate for older women was near the all-time high set in April of this year," the report said.

Employment for those aged 55 and older has grown by 4.6 per cent since January.

The agency said 2007 has been one of the best summer job markets for students in the past 15 years. The average employment rate was 54.6 per cent from May to August.

"At the same time, the average unemployment rate was 12.9 per cent, the lowest since the summer of 1990," the survey said.

Wages are generally up in Canada.

"Employees, on average, made 4.0 per cent more per hour in August than they did in August 2006, exceeding the most recent year-over-year Consumer Price Index increase of 2.2 per cent," it said.

While Canada's employment situation is generally positive, gains weren't spread evenly across the country.

Newfoundland gained 3,000 jobs while Alberta actually lost ground. Full-time jobs went up by 5,000, but part-time positions fell by 5,200.

Ontario and Quebec remained largely unchanged, but the manufacturing sector in Ontario lost 10,000 more jobs in August.

In the United States, employers reduced payrolls by 4,000 positions -- the first such drop in four years, according to a report by the U.S. Labour Dept.

The U.S. unemployment rate held at 4.6 per cent, mainly because hundreds of thousands of people had left the work force.

With files from The Canadian Press

The Canadian Press has compiled a list of the August unemployment rates in select cities. The July figure is in brackets:

  • St. John's, N.L. 6.3 (6.5)
  • Halifax 6.2 (6.0)
  • Saint John, N.B. 4.3 (4.8)
  • Saguenay, Que. 8.2 (8.5)
  • Quebec 4.5 (4.7)
  • Trois-Rivieres, Que. 8.0 (7.4)
  • Sherbrooke, Que. 5.7 (5.6)
  • Montreal 7.0 (6.7)
  • Gatineau, Que. 5.5 (5.6)
  • Ottawa 5.3 (5.4)
  • Kingston, Ont. 6.6 (6.2)
  • Toronto 7.0 (7.0)
  • Hamilton 5.5 (5.9)
  • Kitchener, Ont. 5.6 (5.6)
  • London, Ont. 6.2 (6.1)
  • Oshawa, Ont. 6.6 (6.0)
  • St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 7.7 (6.7)
  • Sudbury, Ont. 6.3 (6.3)
  • Thunder Bay, Ont. 6.6 (6.8)
  • Windsor, Ont. 9.9 (9.3)
  • Winnipeg 4.2 (4.6)
  • Regina 6.1 (6.1)
  • Saskatoon 4.8 (4.6)
  • Calgary 3.3 (3.4)
  • Edmonton 3.9 (4.0)
  • Abbotsford, B.C. 4.5 (4.1)
  • Vancouver 3.8 (4.0)
  • Victoria 3.6  (3.4)

Here are the provincial unemployment rates, with the July rate in brackets:

  • Newfoundland 13.7 (13.6)
  • Prince Edward Island 10.2 (10.5)
  • Nova Scotia 8.9 (8.8)
  • New Brunswick 7.7 (7.2)
  • Quebec 7.0 (6.9)
  • Ontario 6.4 (6.6)
  • Manitoba 4.2 (4.2)
  • Saskatchewan 4.9 (4.8)
  • Alberta 3.5 (3.3)
  • British Columbia 4.0 (4.1)