The number of paid jobs in Canada decreased for the first time in six months amidst a tightening labour market.
There were 5,730 fewer jobs in October than September, following a gain of 43,386 in September, according to figures released by the ADP Research Institute on Thursday.
The transport and utilities sector took the biggest hit, with 9,800 jobs lost over the month. This was followed by resources and mining (-8,200), and administration (-7,500). Results came from transactional payroll data, representing more than two million workers in the country.
October’s downturn failed to stymie a positive job market across the country this year.
“The Canadian economy has added more than 250,000 jobs so far this year, which is 25 percent more than the total number of jobs created in all of 2016,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.
In particular, several sectors posted strong gains last month, with finance and real estate leading the way (11,400). This was followed by IT (10,200), and health care (4,700).
“As unemployment sinks lower available workers will continue to grow scarce,” Yildirmaz added.
HR professionals in finance, real estate, IT and health care will be finding it particularly difficult to attract and recruit quality staff.
The payroll results are in conflict with the latest job figures from Statistics Canada, which are based on a survey of households. The government office reported that employment increased by 35,000 in October, and the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 6.3%.
Source: hrmonline.ca
