Statistics Canada reported today that the Canadian economy added eight times more jobs than expected last month.
The data agency’s monthly Labour Force Survey said Canada gained 80,000 jobs in November, while the jobless rate ticked down four tenths of a percentage point to 5.9 per cent — the lowest since February 2008.It was also the biggest addition of jobs in a single month since April 2012, when the economy was rebounding out of recession.
Canada’s economy has added 441,000 full-time jobs in the past year. Almost 30,000 of the new jobs in November were full-time. The rest were part-time.
More than half the new jobs were in Ontario, but British Columbia, Quebec and Prince Edward Island also saw decent ga
ins. New Brunswick lost about 2,700 jobs during the month. Everywhere else, the jobs figures basically stood still.
The Canadian dollar jumped almost a penny on the news. It was changing hands at 78.37 cents US within minutes of the release of the jobs numbers.
