B.C. was the only province to make significant employment gains in June, adding 16,000 jobs, as Canada’s overall labour market took a slight dip, Statistics Canada said Friday.
Andrew Fields, an analyst with Statistics Canada, said B.C. continues an upward trend that began in the spring of 2015. The province’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.9 per cent, the lowest in the country.
Jobs added in June were mostly in the accommodation and food sector, and in professional, scientific and technical services.
Year over year, employment was up in B.C. by 70,000 jobs, driven by large gains in the professional, scientific and technical services, and the construction industry.
Fields said B.C.’s yearly employment growth of 3 per cent was the fastest rate of the growth among the provinces. Canada’s rate of growth was 0.6 per cent.
Nationally, Statistics Canada said the overall labour market was stuck in neutral last month as gains in the services sector were offset by declines in factory and construction work.
Overall, the data indicated the country lost 700 jobs last month — a change so slight it was statistically insignificant.
But the national unemployment rate fell to 6.8 per cent in June, down from 6.9 per cent the previous month.
Service sector jobs continued to rise last month, gaining 45,500 positions, with the biggest increases registered in accommodation and food services as well as information, culture and recreation.
Compared to 12 months earlier, the June labour force survey found that Canada had added 170,600 services jobs, an increase of 1.2 per cent.
In contrast, the country’s goods-producing industries shed 46,200 jobs in June, as construction and manufacturing industries saw the largest declines. Over the previous year, 63,000 factory jobs were lost overall — a drop of 1.6 per cent.
Employment in the category of self-employed work grew by 37,700 last month, while the number of employee positions dropped 38,400 positions, the survey found.
The data also showed that the labour market shed 40,100 full-time jobs and gained 39,400 less-desirable part-time positions. However, the agency considered both these numbers to be statistically insignificant.
ticrawford@postmedia.com
With files from The Canadian Press
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