During a turbulent week, one fact the government of Justin Trudeau can point to with pride has to do with job creation.
Figures released Friday morning by Statistics Canada showed that February job creation netted 55,900 new positions, all of them full-time. The latest jobs report by the nation's number crunchers also says the unemployment rate held firm last month at 5.8% as more people hunted for work.
The February surge follows a gain of 66,800 positions in January to give Canada its strongest two-month stretch of job creation since the spring of 2012 — and its best two-month start to a year since 1981, when Pierre Trudeau headed the government.
The report says the addition last month of 67,400 full-time jobs more than offset a loss of 11,600 part-time positions. The agency says the number of more desirable employee positions in the private sector climbed by 31,800 last month, while public sector jobs rose 8,900. The number of self-employed increased by 15,100.
