Labour Force Survey, March 2013, published April 5

Posted by on Apr 8, 2013 in Featured | 0 comments

Employment in March decreased by 54,500 positions from February. The unemployment rate increased from 7.0% in February to 7.2% in March, all in full-time.  Construction employment was down 0.7% from February, while manufacturing employment decreased 1.4% from a month earlier.

In March, employment stood at 17.6 million, up 1.2% from March 2012.  Full-time employment fell by 54,000 from February, while part-time employment decreased by 400 from the previous month.  Full-time employment was up by 180,000 from March 2012, while part-time increased by 23,400 over the same period.

Employment over the past year grew in nine provinces, led by Saskatchewan (+4.6%), Prince Edward Island (+4.2%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+3.0). Quebec’s  employment growth rate was 1.6%, while Ontario’s was 0.8%.  Employment from a year earlier was down 0.1% in Nova Scotia.

Total employment gains of 56,100 have occurred in Ontario since March 2012.  Its unemployment rate was 7.7% in March, unchanged from February.  Quebec’s total employment increase since January 2012 was 61,600.  Its unemployment rate in March was 7.7%, up from 7.4% in February.
Since March 2012, employment in the goods-producing sector has decreased by 0.7% and in the services-producing sector, it has grown by 1.7%.
The construction industry lost 9,300 jobs in March over February, bringing total construction employment to 1,300,100, which is an increase of 23,400 construction jobs (+1.8%) from March 2012.

Total manufacturing employment was down 24,200 from February to 1,715,800 jobs.  That was a loss of 48,600 positions (-2.8%) since the same month last year.

The number of people working in retail and wholesale trade was down (-0.1%) in March from February and totaled 2,701,100.  That was a gain of 3.1% from March 2012.

Employment among adult women, aged 25 and over, was up 104,800 in March 2013 over March 2012 but decreased by 21,900 from February.  Employment among adult men was up 98,100 in March 2013 over March 2012 but fell by 22,500 from February.  Employment among youths (15-24 years of age) grew by 500 since last March, but was down by 9,900 from February.

In March, private sector employment was 85,400 (-0.8%) lower than in February, but was up 1.0% from March 2012.  Self-employment was up 1.4% in March over February, and increased by 2.1% from March 2012.  Public sector employment fell 0.8% from February but was up 1.0% from March 2012.  Total private sector employment in March was 11,292,500; self-employment was 2,726,200; and public sector employment was 3,623,200.