Government hiring helped prop up B.C.’s labour market in April, according to Statistics Canada data released Friday.
The province added 6,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate ticked up 0.1 percentage points to 6.2 per cent as more people entered the workforce.
Canada has a whole added a meagre 7,400 jobs during the month of the federal election, while the national unemployment rate ticked up 0.2 percentage points to 6.9 per cent.
Gains on the West Coast were led by public administration (+6,000 jobs) and retail (+5,700 jobs).
Accommodation and food services (-10,300 jobs) and the tech sector (-5,500 jobs) led losses.
Meanwhile, full-time work (+15,900 jobs) managed to stem the losses in part-time work (-9,800 jobs) across the province.
“It doesn't take an archeological dig to realize this is a weak report,” BMO chief economist Douglas Porter said in a note, referring to the national data.
“Labour market slack is building, and wages gains have slowed to a three-year low. … It shows that tariffs are already taking a material bite out of the economy.”
He said the latest jobs report increases the odds the Bank of Canada cuts its overnight rate by 25 basis points in June.
“Canada's economy added jobs in April largely thanks to temporary work for the federal election, but scratch beneath the surface and Canada's labour market continued to soften,” TD senior economist Leslie Preston said in a note.
He also said the latest data indicates the impact of tariffs are worming their way through the national labour market with trade-exposed sectors like manufacturing (-31,000 jobs nationally) and retail (-27,000 jobs nationally) taking big hits last month.
Preston echoed BMO’s forecast of a cut next month of 25 basis points for the central bank’s overnight rate.
