Employment in December increased by 40,000 positions from November. The unemployment rate decreased from 7.2% in November to 7.1% in December, the lowest in four years. Construction employment was up 1.4% from November, while manufacturing employment increased 0.5% from a month earlier.
In December, employment stood at 17.7 million, up 1.8% from December 2011. Full-time employment rose by 41,200 from November, while part-time employment decreased by 1,400 from the previous month. Full-time employment was up by 306,700 from December 2011, while part-time increased by 5,200 over the same period.
Employment over the past year grew in eight provinces, led by Newfoundland and Labrador (+3.7%) and Quebec (+3.5%). Ontario’s employment growth rate was 1.5%. Employment from a year earlier was down 1.9% in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Total employment gains of 100,300 have occurred in Ontario since December 2011. Its unemployment rate was 7.9% in December, unchanged from November. Quebec’s total employment increase since December 2011 was 138,000. Its unemployment rate in December was 7.3%, down from 7.6% in November.
Since December 2011, employment in the goods-producing sector has increased by 2.3% and in the services-producing sector, it has grown by 1.7%.
The construction industry gained 17,800 jobs in December over November, bringing total construction employment to 1,276,900, which is an increase of 12,000 construction jobs (0.9%) from December 2011.
Total manufacturing employment was up 9,300 from November to 1,787,200 jobs. That was a gain of 53,600 positions since the same month last year.
The number of people working in retail and wholesale trade was up 0.5% in December from November and totaled 2,690,700. That was a gain of 1.1% from December 2011.
Employment among adult women, aged 25 and over, was up 146,800 in December 2012 over December 2011 and increased by 1,400 from November. Employment among adult men was up 174,900 in December 2012 over December 2011 and grew by 38,500 from November. Employment among youths (15-24 years of age) declined by 9,800 since last December, and was down by 100 from November.
In December, private sector employment was 59,400 (+0.5%) higher than in November, and was up 2.2% from December 2011. Self-employment was down 0.9% in December over November, and decreased by 0.8% from December 2011. Public sector employment grew 0.1% from November and was up 2.6% from December 2011. Total private sector employment in December was 11,366,500; self-employment was 2,652,500; and public sector employment was 3,647,600.