Something to cheer about for job seekers and Prime Minister

The Canadian economy kept the unemployment rate steady at 6.1 percent by adding 15,200 jobs in the month of August.

The months of June and July saw declines in employment, so the month of August was being closely watched. On Friday, Statistics Canada reported that the net employment gain in the month of August were mostly full-time private sector jobs. It is to be noted that the private sector lost almost 95000 jobs in July, but it added 40,900 jobs in August. But, at the same time, employment in the public sector fell by 23,900 in same period.

Two months of continuous decline in Ontario was reversed as the province added 14,000 jobs. But Statistics Canada noted that Canada created only 87,000 new jobs in the year 2008 till now, whereas it created more than 220,000 jobs in the year 2007 during the first eight months. Thus, there has been a net decrease in the numbers.

Senior economist with Merrill Lynch Canada, Carolyn Kwan told The Canadian Press before the release of the August numbers that the month of July was horrid.

Economists feel that giving too much emphasis on a single month’s result is not good. However, an economics professor at McGill University said that the August job numbers come as some relief for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, which is expected to call an election by this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar rose almost 3 by 4th of a cent to get above 94 cents US after the release of the data, but it loosened its grip on the gains in the latter part of the day. However, it doesn’t seem that the stock market is getting a lot of boost from the unemployment numbers.