CTVNEWS

Jobless rate falls slightly, thanks to part-time jobs

CTV.ca News Staff Published Friday, February 5, 2010 11:32AM EST

Text:

Canada's economy added 43,000 new part-time jobs in January, pushing the national unemployment rate down slightly to 8.3 per cent.

But the good news from Statistics Canada was tempered by figures showing the decrease, down one-tenth of a percentage point from the December jobless rate, was due almost entirely to gains in part-time and service sector jobs.

Full-time employment was little changed in January, but BNN's Mark Bunting says that any jobs are badly needed to maintain the country's still-fragile economic recovery.

"What you really want to see is obviously more full-time jobs being added than part-time, but at this point in the recovery we really can't quibble too much," he told CTV's Canada AM. "Any jobs added are good."

In total, the number of people working in Canada last month rose to 16,924,400, up from 16,881,400 in December. The number of unemployed fell to 1,531,700 from 1,555,800, Statistics Canada reported in its monthly Labour Force Survey.

The report credited 43,000 new, part-time jobs for the lower unemployment rate.

Stewart Hall, an economist with HSBC Securities Canada, told CTV News Channel that while the jobless headlines were good, the details of the Statistics Canada figures were less encouraging.

"Unfortunately once we go below that headline number, there's an element of austerity that continues to exist there," he said. "We have to question in a broader economic picture just what type of contribution this is going to make to the overall GDP and the overall recovery."

Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said Canada's job market "is grinding forward," noting that employment is just one-tenth of a percentage point below the levels of a year ago.

"An amazingly quick turnaround from the dismal conditions of early last year, all things considered."

The January job increases were mainly among adult women and youths.

There were 29,000 more young people working, which moved the youth unemployment rate down to 15.1 per cent from 16 per cent.

It was the first time youth jobs rose since the downturn began in late 2008.

Ontario accounted for 30,000 of the January job increases. The province's unemployment rate was unchanged, at 9.2 per cent, as more people went looking for work.

British Columbia and Manitoba also saw job gains. Nova Scotia lost jobs, while the other provinces were unchanged.

The Quebec unemployment rate actually dipped to 8.0 per cent in January from 8.4 per cent in December as some people left the labour market.

Overall, the largest job gains were in business, building and other support trades and retail and wholesale trade. These were partly offset by losses in professional, scientific and technical services, as well as agriculture.

A look at unemployment across the provinces (previous month in brackets):