TORONTO

Ontario employment grows, but in part-time work

ctvtoronto.ca Published Friday, April 9, 2010 3:23PM EDT

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Ontario saw employment rise in March, but it was largely through the creation of part-time positions as the number of full-time jobs contracted.

The change resulted in the provincial unemployment rate dropping to 8.8 per cent in March from 9.1 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday in its monthly labour force survey.

Nationally, the unemployment rate was 8.2 per cent, which was unchanged from February.

The economy is estimated to have produced 17,900 new jobs. Prior to the report's release, economists had predicted it would show 26,000 jobs had been created.

However, a TD Economics jobs commentary had this take: "The job gains point to a sustainable but not booming recovery, moderating from the breakneck advances in November and January."

In Ontario, total employment rose by 10,300 (for perspective, there are an estimated 6.58 million people employed in the province).

However, the number of full-time jobs contracted by 3,900 while 14,300 were created.

The labour force's size contracted, which helped push the unemployment rate down. The employment rate remained the same as the number of jobs grew at the same pace as the growth in the working-age population of the province, Statistics Canada economist Vincent Ferrao told ctvtoronto.ca.

Here are some national trends identified by Statistics Canada:

since July, employment has grown faster in the public sector than the private - 2 per cent vs. 1.4 per cent
the number of self-employed has declined by 1.3 per cent in that period
sectors that gained in March included professional scientific and technical services; construction and natural resources
the goods-producing sector saw employment rise by 40,000 positions (this includes construction and natural resources)
natural resources employment has been trending up since October 2009, with most new jobs coming in mining and oil and gas extraction
manufacturing employment has stabilized after a loss of 212,000 jobs between October 2008 and June 2009
sectors that declined in March included building, business and other support services; and transportation and warehousing
average wages were up 2.2 per cent in March compared to March 2009

Ferrao said most of those trends hold true for Ontario, except for natural resources employment. He said the manufacturing sector here has gained back 26,000 jobs since July. In comparison, Quebec's manufacturing sector has been shedding jobs.

But TD Economics noted: "Ontario still has a long way to go before the 250,000 jobs lost over the course of the recession are regained."

Here are the unemployment rates for selected Ontario cities (February figure in brackets):