The country added 40,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 per cent following three straight monthly increases, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa. The figures beat expectations for a gain of 20,000 positions and a jobless rate of 5.6 per cent, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
Still, the data suggest the jobs market is looser than it was last year. Population growth outpaced the increase in employment in August and the employment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 61.9 per cent. That’s the seventh straight month this year that population growth outpaced job gains. Last month, total hours worked rose 0.5 per cent on a monthly basis, the fastest pace since February, and were up 2.6 per cent compared to a year earlier. That points to relatively strong economic momentum in the middle of the third quarter, when economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect gross domestic product to expand 0.7 per cent. Last week, preliminary data suggested gross domestic product was flat in July.