A record 107,000 jobs added in Canada

A record 107,000 jobs added in Canada Tuesday, 21 October 2008 Last month, Canada experienced the biggest increase in job growth in the last 30 years, and defied economists' expectations for an actual decline in employment. Canada's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.1 per cent, as a record 107,000 jobs were added to the economy in September, Statistics Canada said. "Five provinces accounted for the overallemployment increase this September: Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia," Statistics Canada said. "There were widespread gains by industry in September. "The largest increase in employment came from health care and social assistance, followed by business, building and other support services, and manufacturing. Employment also increased in transportation and warehousing, agriculture and construction." Although economists had expected job losses of between 5,000 and 10,000 in September, there were 96,600 part-time jobs added in September and 10,300 full- time positions. Statistics Canada said that it has never recorded such a large one-month gain since it first began collecting this data in 1976. "Manufacturing employment increased by 20,000 in September, bringing the industry back to a level similar to the end of 2007," the agency said. "Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets, said: "It seems like everyone has a paper route these days. How else to explain how Canada created 97,000 part-time jobs in a single month, during a period of severe economic strain across the country?"