Canada’s economy created 952,900 new jobs in June in a flurry of rehiring as lockdown restrictions began to ease.
The gains, which add to the 290,000 jobs created in May, lowered the nation’s unemployment rate to 12.3 per cent, from 13.7 per cent the previous month, Statistics Canada said Friday in Ottawa. Economists expected a 700,000 increase and a jobless rate of 12.1 per cent.
As impressive as the the employment jump is, the Canadian economy is still digging itself out of a deep hole. The cumulative two-month gain in employment, at 1.24 million, is still 41 per cent of the 3 million lost jobs in March and April. The jobless rate in May was the highest in almost a century.
“An unambiguously strong print, with good breadth across sectors and regions,” Brett House, deputy chief economist at Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, said by email. “Almost all of the gains were in payroll jobs and in the private sector, so the quality of the numbers is high.”
The numbers reflect the gradual reopening taking place in Ontario and Quebec. Canada’s two most-populous provinces made up two thirds of June job gains. Ontario, the only province not to post an increase in May, saw an increase of 378,000 positions.
Hours worked rose 9.8 per cent in June, but were still 16 per cent below February levels.
The number of Canadians still employed but whose hours have been significantly cut fell by 823,000 in June. That brings the number of Canadians who either lost their job or worked substantially fewer hours to 3.1 million in June, from about 5.5 million in April.
–With assistance from Erik Hertzberg.
