British Columbia gained 30,600 jobs in May, offsetting the 29,000 positions lost in an exceptionally poor April.
Unemployment dipped to 6.1% after reaching 6.3% in April, according to data released June 5 by Statistics Canada. This improvement doesn’t make up for last month’s weak numbers, however, and the rate remains three ticks worse than March’s rate of 5.8%.
“The surge in B.C. followed unusual weakness in early months, and brings that province back close to the national average on a year-over-year basis,” said BMO Financial Group’s Douglas Porter in a note to investors.
Most of the gains – 21,100 jobs – were in part-time positions, while the losses in April were largely related to full-time jobs.
Across Canada, May had a gain of 58,900 jobs – the second-highest jump in three years – more than offsetting the 19,700 lost last month.
The nationwide increases were driven by gains in the private sector. Manufacturing jobs increased by 22,000 and health care and social assistance positions grew 21,000. Public administration and agriculture saw losses in May.
Some economists are saying this news might be a signal of good things to come after a dismal GDP report last week, which saw the Canadian economy shrink 0.6%.
“The growth in employment is impressive in so much as it has occurred despite a persistent decline in employment in mining, oil and gas,” said Dawn Desjardins, assistant chief economist at RBC Economics. “On net the jobs created have been largely full-time and wage growth accelerated in April and May after a six-month period where increases were running at less than 2%.
“The bump up in wage growth combined with the windfall accruing to households from lower gasoline prices are expected to support a snapback in spending after very slow consumption growth in the first quarter.”
Desjardins said these encouraging figures give weight to the Bank of Canada’s recent economic forecast, which saw the Canadian economy bouncing back in 2015’s second quarter.
“Given the uptick in some early measures of activity in the second quarter, we expect the Bank will maintain this outlook and hold the overnight rate at 0.75%,” she said.
American job numbers came out at the same time as StatsCan’s report. The U.S. saw an increase of 280,000 positions after gaining 221,000 in April, but the unemployment rate rose to 5.5% from 5.4% due to a higher participation rate.
As a result of this data being released on both sides of the border, the Canadian dollar vacillated from 80.08 cents U.S. down to 79.67 and then rebounding to 80.06 as of press time.
