December 5, 2009 – Statistics Canada’s Labour Force
Survey for November 2009 was released yesterday and shows a Canada emerging from
recession.
Employment rose by 79,000 in November,
bringing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points
to 8.5%. Despite November's gain, employment was 321,000 (-1.9%)
below the peak of October 2008.
Full-time employment increased by 39,000 in
November, the third consecutive monthly increase. Part-time employment also
rose in November (+40,000), following two months of declines.
November saw an increase in the number of private
(+57,000) and public (+54,000) sector employees, while the number of
self-employed workers declined (-32,000). In recent months, the number of
employees in the public sector, as well as the number of self-employed, has
trended up, while in the private sector, the trend has been relatively flat.
Most of the gain in overall employment in November was
among women aged 25 to 54 (+51,000) and men
aged 55 and over (+17,000).
Almost all the employment growth in November was
attributable to the service sector (+73,000), especially educational services.
With November's increase, employment in the service sector is back at its
October 2008 level, while employment in the goods sector remained
well below (-324,000) where it was at that time.
In November, employment growth was widespread across
most provinces with the largest gains in Ontario,
Quebec and Alberta.
Compared with a year ago, average hourly wages in
November were up 2.3%, the lowest year-over-year growth since
March 2007.
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