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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

August employment report a mixed bag

By: Julian Beltrame

Posted: 09/8/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

OTTAWA -- Canada's economy hammered out 34,300 new jobs last month, a headline figure that beat expectations but contained enough cross-currents to divide economists' reactions.

All the gains in the August jobs report from Statistics Canada were part-time jobs. As well, there were heavy losses in the goods-producing sector, which generally pays higher wages.

And the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.3 per cent as the labour force grew in step with the employment gains.

The Manitoba economy continued its sometimes erratic behaviour in August, gaining back all of the jobs it lost in the previous month and then some.

Statistics Canada said Manitoba posted a net gain of 3,400 new jobs last month, after adding 7,300 new full-time positions and shedding 4,000 part-time ones.

That was almost the exact opposite of what happened in July, when the economy shed 5,100 full-time jobs and added 1,800 new part-time ones, for a net gain of 3,300.

The reversal in fortunes pushed the provincial unemployment rate back down to 5.4 per cent. The July job losses had driven it up to 5.7 per cent from 5.2 per cent in June.

University of Manitoba economist John McCallum said August's rebound was cause for celebration.

"Those are remarkable numbers. And the really good news is the 7,300 new full-time jobs. To me, this stuff is so important..."

The other piece of good news was the addition of 1,400 more workers to the provincial labour force in August, after no change in the previous month.

Bank of Montreal economist Doug Porter called the overall jobs report a "little better than expected... (but) underwhelming."

"I wouldn't get too excited, because a lot of the strength was on the surface," he explained. "It was due to a big rise in part-time jobs and there was actually a decline in hours worked.

"A quick way to look at it was the unemployment rate was unchanged. It's been unchanged from three months ago and it's unchanged from a year ago."

Particularly disconcerting was that 44,000 construction jobs were lost during the month, he said, many in Ontario, which shed 24,900 workers overall.

Another weak link in the report was youth unemployment, which jumped half a point to 14.8 per cent, said Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers.

-- The Canadian Press / staff

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 8, 2012 B5

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