After experiencing an almost unprecedented 71,000 job loss in November, Canadian employment bounced back by 35,000 in December. The December employment recovery led to a reduction in the unemployment rate to 5.6% from 5.9% in the previous month.
The industry breakdown relating to Canada’s one-month job recovery was quite strange, but nonetheless also quite favorable. There were 38,000 full-time jobs created and the private sector added 57,000 jobs, while public sector employment fell 21,000. December’s job gains were also concentrated by region, as Ontario added 25,000 positions and Quebec added 21,000.
Thanks to December’s bounce back in Canada’s job market, 2019 will go down as a banner year for the labor market. Over the twelve months ending December 2019, 320,000 (+1.7%) new jobs were created, with full-time work (+283,000 or +1.9%) accounting for the bulk of the total gain.
The unemployment rate also bounced around quite a bit in 2019, reaching a record low of 5.4% in May, and closed at a 5.6% at the end of 2019, the same as in December 2018. Unfortunately, the Canadian labor force data are subject to large sampling errors.
For example, the sampling error on the December employment gain was plus or minus 30,000 jobs. This also underscores why this writer often reviews job trends over a longer period of time, such as a full year.
Over the past twelve months, job creation was quite uneven across Canada. For example, compared with December 2018, employment in Ontario increased by 243,000 (+3.3%), the largest year-over-year increase since 1987.
Over the same time period, employment in Quebec increased by 63,000 or 1.5%, while employment in British Columbia and Alberta was essentially flat over the twelve months.
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