National Capital lost jobs in November, while national employment
Canada’s economy surged with an unexpected job gain in November, the National Capital Region missed out on the ride, losing 4,000 jobs in the month for a slight 0.5 per cent drop in employment.
But November’s unemployment rate in Ottawa-Gatineau also dropped, to 4.4 per cent from 5.1 per cent the month before, because the number of people looking for work also decreased, figures released Friday morning
by Statistics Canada show. Employment in the capital region is still up 3.9 per cent from a year ago.
Ottawa accounted for 3,400 of the lost jobs in the month. The size of the city’s overall labour force also fell to 603,500, compared to 612,500 in October. Ottawa’s unemployment rate was 4.6 per cent, down from 5.4 per
cent in October.
Gatineau lost 700 jobs while its labour force also declined to 177,800 from 178,500 the month before. The unemployment rate on the Quebec side was 3.7 per cent, compared to 3.9 per cent in October.
The region’s numbers buck that national trend, which showed Canada adding 154,000 jobs in the month, a 0.8 per cent increase from October. Canada’s unemployment rate was 6.0 per cent in November, down from 6.7
per cent the month before.
Statistics Canada’s monthly Labour Force Survey put the number of working Canadians at 19.3 million, compared with 19.1 million at the beginning of the pandemic, which is effectively the level of employment that the
economy was on track to achieve by the end of 2021 if the pandemic hadn’t interrupted the trend. The employment rate, which compares the working population to the overall population, was 61.4 per cent, the highest since
February 2020, when the rate was 61.8 per cent.
