Canada added the population of a mid-sized city to its job market in the month of April.
According to Statistics Canada, 107,000 people found employment last month. It’s the most jobs ever added month-to-month since record-keeping began in 1976.
What’s most encouraging is that strong gains were seen among young workers, older workers over 55, and women. Around half of new jobs (47,000) are occupied by workers aged 15 to 24.
The largest gains were seen in the wholesale and retail industries (32,000 jobs) and construction (29,000).
“Suddenly a lot of Canadian young people decided that they needed to work, and they helped power a massive surge in employment in April if today’s data are to be taken at face value,” said CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld. “So much for the soft economy.”
Except that is probably is a soft economy. Given that summer is just around the corner, it’s very likely that many of these young people will be employed seasonally, and at minimum wage. Still, it’s a small victory for Prime Minister Just Trudeau, whose approval rating is well deep in the toilet.
Canada’s April job growth was lead primarily by Ontario and Quebec, which added 47,000 and 38,000 jobs, respectively. Quebec’s unemployment rate is now the lowest on record, at 4.9 per cent. Canada’s unemployment rate among young people (those aged aged 15 to 24) also dripped to the lowest level on record, at 10.3 per cent.
Canada’s overall unemployment rate, meanwhile, dropped to 5.7 per cent.