The economy still needs to overcome some significant issues when it comes to full-time employment
The Canadian economy saw the addition of 230,700 new jobs last month, but virtually all of the gains were in part-time work.
As reported by Statistics Canada, the June numbers exceeded economists’ expectations of an increase of 175,000. However, full-time jobs declined for the third straight month, despite the unemployment rate inching down to 7.8%.
Overall, the nation created 263,900 part-time jobs in June, while full-time employment dropped by 33,200. According to StatsCan, employment in accommodation and food services increased by 101,000 last month. The retail segment added 75,000 jobs.
Read more: The pandemic’s impact on working women
Meanwhile, the Canadian labour force increased by 169,900 in June, bringing the participation rate up to 65.2% and compensating for two months of declines in this metric.
“The rising participation rate should alleviate some concerns about widespread labour shortages,” said Royce Mendes, economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
Jimmy Jean, chief economist at Desjardins Group, was similarly optimistic despite the nature of the gains.
“[The June labour growth] was heavily driven by part-time employment, of course, but it’s also consistent with what we are seeing by industry,” Jean told Bloomberg. “One of the best performances was seen in accommodation and food … so that’s the signal that reopening in high-contact sectors is really leading a pick up.”
A recent Bloomberg survey of economists found that Canadian economic growth will likely accelerate to 9.1% in the third quarter, before moderating to 6% in Q4 2021.
