For the first time since 2012, Canada has gained jobs in back-to-back months.
B.C.’s performance, however, remained flat in October as the country added 43,000 jobs, according to Statistics Canada data released November 7.
The province added 4,000 jobs but the unemployment rate remained unchanged from September at 6.1% as more people entered the workforce.
The national unemployment rate dropped 0.3% compared with the month prior, further adding to the strong job numbers in September.
“The Canadian jobs market has stepped off the see-saw, and two consecutive strong months provide a welcome dose of reassurance after a series of sluggish output figures for the third quarter,” CIBC World Markets chief economist Avery Shenfield said in a note to investors.
“September’s (43,000) jobs gain more than doubled our top-of-consensus forecast, and featured solid private sector hiring across a broad range of sectors, with resources a notable exception.”
In B.C., the unemployment rate among youths aged 15-24 still remained far above the provincial average but dropped more than a full percentage point from 12.8% in September to 11.6% in October.
B.C.’s unemployment rate in business, finance and administration jobs remained flat month-to-month at 2.4%.
But the unemployment rate in the trades fell from 5.6% in September to 3.8% in October.
Management positions, on the other hand, experienced a month-to-month climb in the unemployment rate, rising from 1.4% to 2.1%.
Although the province’s northeast typically has the lowest unemployment rate, figures for that region were not available for the month of October.
Instead, the Cariboo region had an unemployment rate of 5.1% — the lowest out of all the regions reporting data — while the North Coast and Nechako region registered the highest at 7.5%.
Metro Vancouver’s unemployment rate was at 6.2%. Victoria’s was 5.3%.
