Surprise jobs boom in September: StatsCan

Following a loss of 11,000 jobs in August, Canada’s economy generated 74,100 net new jobs in September, according to the most recent report from Statistics Canada.

The gains knocked the unemployment rate down to 6.8 per cent – its lowest level in nearly six years.

Economists had expected the economy to create 20,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate to hold steady at seven per cent, according to Thomson Reuters. StatsCan’s latest labor-market data found 69,300 of the new jobs were full-time work.

According to StatsCan, the bulk of the jobs were created in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador, while the other provinces saw only small changes.

Ontario added the most jobs with 24,700 new positions, dropping its unemployment rate down by three-tenths of a percentage point to 7.1 per cent. New Brunswick was the only province that saw its unemployment increase last month, rising 0.9 percentage points to 9.6 per cent.

StatsCan’s figures indicate that more people were employed in food services and accommodation, health care and social assistance, construction, natural resources, finance, insurance, real estate and leasing.