Nearshore Americas
Canada

Canada’s National Unemployment Rate Rises to 6 Percent

New data shows that Canada’s national unemployment rate has risen to 6%, with the country reporting more than 52,000 net job losses for the month of August.

Considering data from Statistics Canada, part-time positions are increasingly declining while full-time jobs are growing in number.

Among the major sectors shedding jobs are construction, professional services, scientific, and technical services, with the services sector alone losing 21,200 jobs in August.

As many as 92,000 part-time positions were eliminated last month, while full-time jobs edged up. Economists were expecting a net increase of around 5,000 jobs for August.

Among the provinces, Ontario was the biggest loser, as 80,000 positions were eliminated during the month. Alberta and Manitoba reported an increase in jobs, while employment figures hardly changed in the other provinces.

The Canadian government is doing everything it can to create employment. It relaxed its immigration laws and introduced a slew of incentives for businesses creating jobs.

Analysts say that the increase in full-time jobs confirms that there has been a greater improvement in job quality.

There are more jobs in the country than there were a year ago. There were 326,000 more full-time jobs in Canada in August than a year earlier, up 2.2%. The country lost 154,000 jobs during the period.

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The job growth has slowed down since January this year, partly due to the uncertainty stemming from the ongoing negotiations over North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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