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Toronto Star: Job growth tops forecast
Sharon Singleton

Canada's economy added about five times as many jobs as expected in June, suggesting the recovery hasn't lost its momentum despite recent disappointing growth data.

Employers hired 93,000 workers in the month, with the jobless rate falling to 7.9%, Statistics Canada said. It was the first time the unemployment rate has dropped below 8% since January 2009. Economists had been looking for a gain of about 18,000 jobs. The rosy job data boosted expectations for another hike in interest rates later this month, sending the Canadian dollar up by about 1% against its U.S. counterpart.

Canada has now recouped nearly all of the jobs that were lost during the recession, unlike south of the border, where the recovery is failing to bring down the unemployment rate. Adjusting for population, Canada has created 4 million jobs since July 2009 compared with 176,000 in the U.S., according to TD Bank Financial. "There's no arguing with this strong report," said BMO Capital Markets economist Benjamin Reitzes. "The jobs picture clearly shows that the Canadian recovery hasn't stalled yet, despite signs of slowing momentum in the U.S. and other economies."

Ontario and Quebec accounted for nearly all the gains, with 90,000 jobs created in the two provinces, it said. Reitzes said some of the Ontario gains may have been due to hiring for the G8 and G20 summits held last month. There were also healthy gains in percentage terms in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, while jobs declined in Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, it said. The job gains in June were split between full and part-time workers with big increases in sectors such as the service industries, retail, business, health care and automotive repair, StatsCan said.

The private sector added 51,900 new jobs, taking the total created by businesses to 246,200 in the past four months. The health of private sector hiring bodes well for Canada's economic recovery as the impact of government stimulus spending begins to wane, economists said.
That said, job growth may slow in the second half in line with the slowing economy, TD Bank economist Diana Petramala said in a note. "Leading indicators suggest economic momentum is starting to cool to a pace of 2.5-3.5%, down from the 5-6% growth rates in the previous quarters," she said.