BC’s unemployment rate drops
Posted May 6, 2016 6:26 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA, ON. (NEWS 1130) – BC added 13,000 jobs in April, with Statistics Canada saying the unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points to 5.8 per cent. It’s the first time BC has had the lowest jobless rate among the provinces since comparable data became available in 1976.
Overall, the Canadian labour market was stuck in neutral last month as a solid employment gain in the services sector was wiped out by job losses in the goods-producing industry, especially in manufacturing.
The national agency says Canada said the national unemployment rate for April remained unchanged at 7.1 per cent. However, the country lost 2,100 jobs nationally — a number Statistics Canada considers to be close to zero.
But Alberta’s woes persisted as it lost 20,800 positions in April, the most of any province. The province has been hit hard by low oil prices and it’s now contending with a monstrous wildfire that has forced the shutdown of economically critical oilsands facilities and the evacuation of Fort McMurray.
Economists have been looking to Canada’s manufacturing industry to pick up the slack from Canada’s hobbled resources sector, which has struggled amid low commodity prices.
