Labour Force Survey, April 2014, published May 9

Posted by on May 12, 2014 in Featured | 0 comments

Employment in April was down 0.2% from March. The unemployment rate was 6.9%, unchanged from March.  Construction employment was unchanged from March as was manufacturing employment.

In April, employment stood at 17.8 million, up 0.8% from April 2013.  Full-time employment fell by 30,900 from March, while part-time employment increased by 2,000 from the previous month.  Full-time employment was up by 70,000 from April 2013, while part-time increased by 79,200 over the same period.

Employment over the past year grew in five provinces.  Alberta (+3.3%),  Saskatchewan (+1.5%) and Ontario (+1.1%) led the way.  The employment growth rate in Quebec was  -1.0%.   Employment from a year earlier was down most in Prince Edward Island (-2.8%) followed by Nova Scotia (-1.7%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (-1.4%).

Total employment gains of 73,500 have occurred in Ontario since April 2013.  Its unemployment rate was 7.4% in April, up from 7.3% in March.  Quebec’s total employment decrease since April 2013 was 4,800.  Its unemployment rate in April was 7.6%, unchanged from March.

Since April 2013, employment in the goods-producing sector has increased by 0.1% and in the services-producing sector it has grown by 1.1%.

The construction industry gained 600 jobs in April over March, bringing total construction employment to 1,300,800, which is a decrease of 16,000 construction jobs (-1.2%) from April 2013.

Total manufacturing employment was down 800 from March to 1,733,700 jobs.  That was a gain of 1,100 positions (+0.1%) since April 2013.

The number of people working in retail and wholesale trade was up 12,300 in April from March and totaled 2,706,600.  That was a gain of 0.8% from April 2013.

Employment among adult women, aged 25 and over, was up 63,300 in April 2014 over April 2013 and decreased by 6,800 from March.  Employment among adult men was up 84,000 in April 2014 over April 2013 and grew by 5,100 from March.  Employment among youths (15-24 years of age) was up by 2,100 since April 2013, but fell by 27,100 from March.

In April, private sector employment was down 28,600 from March, and increased 1.7% from April 2013.  Self-employment was up 17,200 in April over March, and increased by 0.2% from April 2013.  Public sector employment was down 0.5% in April from March and decreased 1.2% from April 2013.  Total private sector employment in April was 11,474,300; self-employment was 2,721,800; and public sector employment was 3,608,200.