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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Manitoba beats other provinces in jobs race

By: Murray McNeill

Posted: 08/8/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

MANITOBA has been a shining light on the jobs front during the recession, adding more new jobs than any other province, according to Statistics Canada figures released Friday.Training Minister Andrew Swan said the figures show Manitoba was one of only two provinces -- Prince Edward Island was the other -- to post a net gain in employment since the global recession began in October of last year.

He said there were 1,000 more people working in Manitoba last month than in October of last year. During that same nine-month period, Canada lost 414,000 jobs. Swan said Manitoba has also led the country in private-sector job gains during the recession, with a gain of 8,300 workers, or 1.9 per cent.

"This is more than three times the growth of second-place Prince Edward Island," he added.

That pattern was repeated in July, when Manitoba again posted the highest percentage gain in overall employment, at 1.2 per cent. Ontario was a distant second with a 0.2 per cent increase.

Despite the gain, Manitoba's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.2 per cent -- the second lowest in the country.

While Manitoba was adding more jobs in July, the Canadian economy was shedding another 44,500 workers. However, the losses weren't enough to alter the national unemployment rate, which remained at an 11-year high of 8.6 per cent.

Most economists had expected between 15,000 and 20,000 job losses across the country for the month, and a modest increase in the unemployment rate.

"No one said it was going to be a smooth recovery, and especially not for employment," said Douglas Porter, economist at BMO Capital Markets.

"However, the underlying picture still looks quite soft, and there's little sign here that the (Canadian) economy is quickly turning the corner."

Charmaine Buskas, senior economics strategist at TD Securities, said the stagnant jobless rate "reflects more people becoming discouraged with their employment prospects and leaving the labour market."

One local economist said the only disconcerting part about Manitoba's July labour force numbers was that all of the new jobs that were created were part time, and the province lost another 5,300 full-time jobs.

"That's a big number," John McCallum, an economics professor at the University of Manitoba, said.

But Wilf Falk, the province's chief statistician, said he wouldn't read too much into the July figure.

"This monthly stuff can bounce around quite a bit," Falk said, noting Manitoba saw an increase in full-time jobs in five of the first seven months of this year. That left it with 2,800 more full-time workers in July than there were in December, he added, and 2,300 fewer part-time positions.

"So overall I think our labour market is doing remarkably well compared to other jurisdictions."

Statistics Canada said Canada lost both full- and part-time positions in July.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 8, 2009 B7

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