The Canadian economy added 27,700 jobs in May pushing the unemployment rate to its lowest level since comparable data become available in 1976, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
The unemployment rate was down 0.3 percentage points to 5.4 per cent, as the number of people looking for work decreased sharply following little change over the previous three months, the report said.
The month of May saw a notable increase in the number of full-time self-employed people.
The number of self-employed workers rose by 62,000, while the number of employees in the public and private sectors was little changed.
CIBC senior economist Royce Mendes noted that when you drill down into the details of the jobs report some of the details weren’t as good as the headline suggested.
“The details though weren’t immaculate, if you look at where the job creation was focused,” he said.
“Yes, it was focused in full-time which is solid for the Canadian economy, but it was also attributed to self-employment, which tends to be more precarious than paid employment at companies.”
Mendes also noted that hours worked were down for the month.
“So despite having a healthy increase in headline employment, hours worked, which actually translates more directly to GDP, were actually down,” he said.
The jobs report was the latest data point to suggest the economic weakness seen over the winter is on the mend.
“While a few aspects dulled the strong headline figures in the May report, the Canadian labour market is still performing admirably,” said Robert Kavcic, senior economist with BMO Financial Group.
“A multi-decade low on the jobless rate and firmer wage growth should dull some of the Bank of Canada rate-cut chatter, as should better momentum in areas like trade and housing (at least in Toronto) so far during the spring data run.”
Most of the jobs were added in Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The job market shrank, meanwhile, in Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. Everywhere else, it was little changed.
With files from The Canadian Press
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