Employment rose by 11,000 in British Columbia last month, continuing an upward trend that began in the spring of 2015, Statistics Canada said Friday (February 10).
In the 12 months to January 2017, employment increased by 82,000 or 3.5%, the fastest growth rate among the provinces, StatsCan said. Over the same period, the unemployment rate fell by a full percentage point to 5.6%, the lowest among the provinces.
Countrywide, employment rose by 48,000 (+0.3%) in January, building on gains in the latter part of 2016. The unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 6.8%.
On a year-over-year basis, employment in Canada rose by 276,000 (+1.5%), with most of the increase occurring from August to January.
After a significant increase in December, full-time employment held steady in January. Compared with 12 months earlier, full-time employment was up 86,000 (+0.6%), with increases totalling 141,000 since August.
Despite little change in January, Canada’s part-time employment was up on a year-over-year basis (+190,000 or +5.6%). In January, 19.6% of employed persons worked part time, compared with 18.8% the same month a year earlier.
In the 12 months to January, the number of hours worked declined by 0.8%. In general, changes in actual hours worked reflect a number of factors, including changes in the composition of employment by full-time/part-time status, industry, occupation, age and sex.
From December to January, employment rose among men and women between the ages of 25 and 54. There was little overall employment change among the other demographic groups.
Compared with December, employment rose in Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. In contrast, there were fewer people working in New Brunswick. Employment was little changed in the remaining provinces, StatsCan said.
Nearly all of the employment growth in January came from the service sector, with increases in finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing; business, building and other support services; transportation and warehousing; and public administration. On the other hand, there were fewer people working in information, culture and recreation.
The number of private sector employees edged up in January, while public sector employment and the number of self-employed workers were little changed.
