By Tyler Marr

Economic spreadsheet

Despite gains, unemployment ticks up to 5.8 per cent as more look for work

Feb 8, 2019 | 10:15 AM

Despite a flurry of new jobs in January, as the job market tightens and more people search for work, the nation’s unemployment rate jumped from its 43-year low of 5.6 to 5.8 per cent.

Canada added nearly 67,00 jobs last month, fuelled by gains in the private sector, according to Statistics Canada’s monthly labour force survey. Both full-time and part-time employment added 30,900 and 36,000 positions, respectively. The labour force — those working or actively looking for work — ballooned by 103,700. Declines came among those self-employed and in the public sector. The private sector added 112,000 jobs.

On a year-over-year basis, total employment is up 327,000 or 1.8 per cent, reflecting increases in both full- and part-time work.

Total hours worked are up 1.2 per cent over the same period, according to StatsCan, compared to 0.9 per cent in December.

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Wages for permanent employees accelerated to 1.8 per cent in January from 1.5 per cent in December, and overall wage growth ran steady at two per cent.

Much of the growth, according to the agency, was led by younger workers. Those between the age of 15 to 24 who found work was up by 53,000, evenly split between men and women, according to the report.

Provincially, gains in Ontario drove a hefty portion of new employment. Canada’s largest province added 41,000 jobs and saw 31,000 more people join the labour force. Increases were also recorded in Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and New Brunswick.

In contrast, Alberta saw a second straight month of declines, down 16,000 positions, vaulting the unemployment rate to 6.8 per cent.

Here in Saskatchewan, employment dropped by 2,800 positions, but the unemployment rate fell slightly to 5.5 per cent as the province’s labour force shrunk to 610,100 from 613,200. The number of part- and full-time positions declined by 400 and 2,400, respectively.

In Prince Albert and Northern Saskatchewan, which includes data for our region, year-over-year, the unemployment rate vaulted to 7.8 per cent from 6.7. In January, the labour force contracted to 104,200 from 105,300, the number of people employed fell to 96,100 from 98,200 and the participation rate went from 66 to 65.6 per cent.

In a note to clients Friday, CIBC Chief Economist Royce Mendes wrote the latest job readings were “a car stuck on one of Canada’s clogged highways: speeding up then slowing down just to speed back up again.”

“Volatility returned with a notable increase in employment during the month of January,” he wrote. “Even looking past the headline, the details of the report were generally solid, although there was one fly in the ointment, a decline in hours worked which is important for GDP tracking.”

He credited recent job gains drawing people back in as for why the participation rate is running at its highest level since 2017.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr