Canadian and US Employment - June 7, 2013

BCREA ECONOMICS NOW

Canadian and US Employment - June 7, 2013

Canadian job growth made up for a lackluster March and April, adding an outstanding95,000 jobs in May, the second largest monthly gain on record. The surge in employment pushed the Canadian unemployment rate 0.1 points lower to 7.1 per cent.  While May's job number was certainly remarkable, employment numbers have been volatile of late and so for direction on the economy its best to look at average job growth over the past six months. That measure shows an economy creating a healthy 15,000 to 20,000 jobs per month.

The BC labour market was shut out of the May job bonanza, staying essentially flat as a gain in part-time employment offset a loss of nearly 16,000 full-time jobs. The provincial unemployment rate rose 0.4 points to 6.8 per cent and the level of employment stand at 0.2 per cent lower than in May 2012.

In the US, employment growth outperformed expectations with payrolls expanding by 175,000 jobs in May while the US unemployment rate ticked 0.1 points higher to 7.6 per cent.