Employment grew by 30,600 in September from August. The unemployment rate was down to 8.4%. Construction employment was up 2.2% from August, while manufacturing employment increased 1.5% from August.

Since peaking in October 2008, employment had fallen by 2.1% (-357,000).  In September, employment stood at just over 16.8 million, down 354,400 (-2.1%) from September 2008, and up 30,600 (0.2%) from August 2009.  Full-time employment grew by 91,600 from August, while part-time employment declined by 61,000 from the previous month.     

Employment over the past 12 months grew in only two provinces: New Brunswick (+0.2%) and Manitoba (+0.3%).  Total employment losses of 205,200 (-3.0%) have occurred in Ontario since September 2008.  Ontario’s unemployment rate was 9.2% in September, down from 9.4% in August.  Quebec’s total employment loss since September 2008 was 60,300. Quebec’s unemployment rate in September was 8.8%, down from 9.1% in August.    

Since September 2008, employment in the goods-producing sector has declined sharply (-8.7%) while employment in the services-producing sector, which is traditionally less sensitive to economic slowdowns, has remained unchanged over the same period.     

The construction industry gained 24,600 jobs in September over August, bringing total construction employment to 1,166,800, which is a decrease of 93,100 construction jobs (-7.4%) from September 2008.  

Total manufacturing employment was down 11.1% from September 2008.  This was a decline of 219,700 jobs since the same month last year.  Manufacturing employment was up 26,100 (+1.5%) from August to September this year.

The number of people working in retail and wholesale trade was up 2,000 in September from August to a total of 2,662,900.  That was 0.2% lower than in September 2008.  

Employment among adult women, aged 25 and over, was up 50,600 in September 2009 over September 2008 and increased 41,300 from August.  Employment among adult men was down 164,800 in September 2009 over September 2008 and fell by 14,900 from August.  Employment among youths (15-24 years of age) dropped by 240,300 since last September, and was up by 4,200 from August.

In September, employment in the private sector was down 0.2% from the previous month, and was 3.9% lower than in September 2008.  Self-employment was up 0.4% in September over August and was 2.9% higher than in September 2008.  Public sector employment was up 1.1% from August and fell 0.1% over September 2008.