Employers in Canada added 34,300 workers to their payrolls, while in the U.S. the economy created a lower-than-expected 96,000 net new jobs.
In Canada, the uptick wasn’t enough to move the unemployment rate, which remained unchanged at 7.3 per cent as more people began looking for work, Statistics Canada said Friday.
In the U.S., the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 per cent from 8.3 per cent, but only because more Americans became discouraged and dropped out of the labour force, the U.S. Department of Labor reported.
Canada’s growth rate wasn’t quite as strong as appeared, economists said, noting all the gains were in part-time, mainly lower-paid service sector jobs and simply reversed July’s disappointing performance.
Quebec and Ontario shed jobs while British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba saw increases.
The U.S. data, meanwhile, delivered a mixed message.
While low employment growth could hurt President Barack Obama’s re-election chances in November, it could also increase the likelihood the U.S. Federal Reserve will provide another round of economic stimulus, perhaps as early as its next policy meeting on Sept. 12 – 13.
“Canada’s job market showed a bit of a bounce in August, although there was less strength than meets the eye—effectively the report was the mirror image of July,” said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. “Perhaps the big story was the divergence between Canada and the U.S., the opposite of what was expected: Canada’s job market showed some renewed spark, while the U.S. somewhat sputtered.”
The data wasn’t expected to change the Bank of Canada’s outlook on interest rates, economists said.
U.S. economists had been predicting 127,000 new jobs in August. However, better than expected data on ADP jobs, a measure of private sector payrolls, and the ISM non-manufacturing sector, a measure of service sector employment, had some revising their figures upwards just before Friday’s release.
The U.S. unemployment rate, while below its post-recession high of 10 per cent, has remained above 8 per cent for nearly three years.
America’s economic performance is a key driver of Canada’s economy, which relies heavily on the U.S. market for exports. Along with Europe, where the banking crisis has pushed the region into recession, a sluggish U.S. economy remains the biggest risk to Canada’s performance.
“Going forward, business desire to hire will be highly dependent on how the external environment unfolds,” TD Bank economic Francis Fong wrote in a note to clients. “The remainder of the year will likely look much the same from an employment perspective.”
In Canada, economists were expecting the economy to add just 10,000 new jobs last month.
With the latest gains, Statistics Canada said employment in Canada has increased by one per cent, or by 177,000 jobs, over the past year, with most of the gains in full-time work.
Over the past two months, the number of hours worked by Canadians has risen by 0.7 per cent.
For the month of August, a 46,700 increase in part-time work was partially offset by a 12,500 decline in full-time jobs, Statistics Canada reported.
Goods producing industries shed 36,400 workers. Construction dropped 44,000 and manufacturing was also down slightly.
The gainers were in the services sector, more than making up the slack by adding 70,600 jobs. Transportation and warehousing was up 37,000; professional, scientific and technical services, 20,000; building and other support services, 19,000; and natural resources up 8,800 workers.
Labour leader Ken Lewenza, who is national president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, lamented the increase in “precarious” part-time jobs, saying it’s further proof the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is failing workers, especially young people.
Employment among 15-24 year old workers in August was down 72,000 compared with a year ago. Meanwhile, student unemployment jumped half a percentage point to 14.8 per cent.
“This Conservative model bent on tearing down our economic structures, whether through tax cuts, looser foreign investment laws and more unfair corporate trade deals isn't delivering prosperity for working people, so let's explore new policies that actually work,” Lewenza said. “Let's quit stalling and get on with the formation of a national good jobs strategy for Canada.”
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Dana Flavelle
No comments:
Post a Comment