StatCan: Sudbury adds 400 jobs in October

Greater Sudbury added about 400 jobs in October, but a surge in the number of people looking for work pushed the city's jobless rate up to 6.2 per cent, an increase of 0.2 per cent compared to September.

The city's job growth reflected a trend across Ontario and Canada, Statistics Canada reported Friday in its monthly employment report.

The StatsCan survey says Canada's economy generated 43,100 net new jobs in October and dropped the unemployment rate to 6.5 per cent -- its lowest level since November 2008.

And Ontario gained 37,000 jobs last month, including an increase of 33,700 full-time jobs, dropping the provincial unemployment rate to 7 per cent, down 0.3 per cent from September.

With October's gains, employment in Ontario has increased by 551,300 since June 2009 -- 93.1 per cent of which are full-time and 71.3 per cent in the private sector, according to a release Friday from Brad Duguid, Ontario's minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure.

“Ontario’s economic plan is working and our economy is continuing to recover,” Duguid is quoted as saying. “We will continue to focus on growing a strong, diversified and globally competitive economy that will provide jobs, increase productivity and result in more prosperity for all Ontarians.”

In Sudbury, the number of people with jobs grew to 82,400 last month, a gain offset by a growth in the labour force of 600 to 87,800.

The rate has dropped significantly since this time last year, when the unemployment rate in the city stood at 7.2 per cent, out of a workforce of 89,700.

The job gain in Canada as a whole followed an increase of 74,100 jobs for September and was the first time since December 2012 the roller-coaster jobs report recorded two consecutive months of employment growth, the agency said.

Economists had predicted the economy to lose 5,000 jobs in October and for the unemployment rate to remain unchanged, according to Thomson Reuters.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver took the unusual step of holding a news conference to discuss the results, an hour after the numbers were made public.

"Our plans for jobs and growth is working in spite of a fragile international economic environment," Oliver told reporters in Toronto.

"As I said before, we don't rely on one single month but when we have two months ... then of course you start to see a trend, which is very positive."

The report found employment was up one per cent from a year ago, with the increases of the past two months making up about two-thirds of that boost.

Provincially, the survey also listed job gains in Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, while employment decreased in New Brunswick. Other provinces saw only marginal changes in employment.

In the manufacturing sector, there were 33,200 more jobs in October compared to the previous month, and the industry saw a two-per-cent increase from a year ago.

Meanwhile, the survey said the natural resources sector shed 22,200 jobs in October, delivering a 6.2-per-cent decline in the industry over the last 12 months.

Statistics Canada found that October's youth unemployment rate fell 0.9 percentage points to 12.6 per cent, as fewer young people searched for work. However, the report said on a year-over-year basis, youth employment was up by 39,000 positions, or 1.6 per cent.

Oliver thought the data on young people, those aged 15 to 24 years old, showed promise.

"We're looking for permanent jobs for youth and we're very encouraged by the latest numbers," he said.

— With files from Canadian Press