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Canada’s employment situation was “little changed” in May, after the number of new jobs created blew past expectations the previous month, the national statistical agency said Friday.
Some 27,000 new jobs were added in the month while the unemployment rate edged up to 6.2 percent, as population growth continued to outpace job creation. About 90,000 jobs had been added in April.
The unemployment rate has trended up over the past year, rising 1.1 percentage points since April 2023, across all major demographic groups, Statistics Canada said in a statement.
Employment rose in May in health care and social assistance (+30,000), finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (+29,000), business, building and other support services (+19,000), as well as accommodation and food services (+13,000).
It declined in construction (-30,000), transportation and warehousing (-21,000) and utilities (-5,400).
Most of the new jobs were part-time while full-time employment edged down.
Wage growth, meanwhile, continued to accelerate, up 5.1 percent year over year, following a 4.7 percent hike in April.
Canada’s population surpassed 40 million in January, up 1.3 million from the previous year, marking the country’s highest population growth rate since 1957 — due largely to immigration.
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