British Columbia gained almost 60,000 jobs in the 12 months to November, according to Statistics Canada data released December 4, giving the province the highest rate of job growth in the country over that period.
The advance represents an increase of 2.6% year-over-year—significantly higher than the 0.7% increase seen nationally.
“British Columbia continues to churn out solid job gains…standing alone high atop the leaderboard,” said Robert Kavcic, senior economist and vice-president of economic research for BMO Capital Markets.
“Note that a massive jump in the labour force in recent months—up 3.1% year-over-year, likely reflecting movement back from Alberta—has kept the jobless rate from falling more significantly.”
Kavcic also pointed out that in Vancouver alone, employment grew 3.6% over the year, with an unemployment rate now sitting at 5.8%, “well below its big-city peers in Calgary (6.9%) and Toronto (7.0%).”
On a month-to-month basis, B.C. shed 1,400 jobs between October and November. This was due to a loss of 18,500 full-time jobs, only partially offset by a 17,100 gain in part-time positions.
Across the country, 36,000 jobs were shed in November. Canada lost more than 72,000 part-time jobs in the month, but gained almost 37,000 full-time positions. Canada’s unemployment rate in November was 7.1%—an increase of 0.1 percentage points compared with October. Year-over-year, the country gained 124,000 jobs—all in full-time positions.
Many of the jobs lost across the country were in public administration, and a significant portion of these jobs related to the October 18 federal election. There was a decline of 33,000 public admin positions in the month, which cancelled out an increase of 32,000 in October.
Brian DePratto, economist at TD Economics, said November’s drop in employment was expected due to the election, and that overall the Canadian job market has been stronger than expected in 2015. This doesn’t mean this will necessarily continue to be the case, however.
“Although one month hardly makes a trend, this strength appears to have dissipated somewhat in November, and only modest employment growth is expected in the coming months,” DePratto said.
“Indeed, with oil prices hovering around $40 per barrel, employment in the oil and gas sector is likely to continue trending lower, offsetting potential gains in other areas.”
Meanwhile, south of the border, the United State gained 211,000 jobs in the month, beating analysts’ estimates of around 190,000 jobs.
“The U.S. released a strong enough November employment report to assure that the Federal Reserve will raise overnight interest rates a quarter point on December 16, as is widely expected,” said Sherry Cooper, chief economist of Dominion Lending Centres.
“This can’t help but weaken the Canadian dollar further and boost domestic interest rates, at least a bit. Most particularly, mortgage rates will likely continue to gradually edge higher, despite the Bank of Canada remaining on the sidelines for months to come.”
The Canadian dollar had a brief downward spike on the release of this morning’s news, getting as low as 74.63 cents U.S. As of press time, the loonie had rallied somewhat and was trading at 74.82 cents U.S.
