Canada saw less job growth than expected in February, as full-time employment and positions in the private sector saw overall declines.
There were 15,100 more people employed in the country last month, Statistics Canada said Friday. Economists had expected an increase of 25,000 people to the ranks of the employed in February following January's surge of 69,200.
The unemployment rate stayed at 7.8%, even though experts had predicted it would decline to 7.7%.
February's job gains were well behind what has been the norm as of late. Statistics Canada noted there have been 115,000 job gains over the past three months. There has been employment growth of 322,000 over the past year, which works out to an average of almost 27,000 a month.
Part-time employment was up by 38,900 in February, while those with full-time jobs declined by 23,800. Private-sector employment was down by 20,000, while there were 9,600 more people working in the public sector. Most of the job gains came from the 25,500 people who became self-employed last month.
Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets, called the job numbers, "Not bad, but underwhelming."
He said it was encouraging to see growth in sectors such as manufacturing and construction, where there were job gains of 9,000 and 6,100, respectively.
Despite the overall gain in public-sector employment, Porter noted that direct government jobs were down 13,500, which could be "a hint of what's to come as stimulus turns to restraint."
By region, the strongest job gains were in the West. Alberta saw 13,700 more people working last month, helping push its unemployment rate down to 5.7% from 5.9%. British Columbia saw job gains of 8,900, but its jobless rate rose to 8.8% from 8.2%.
Saskatchewan had 3,300 fewer people working last month, with its unemployment rate rising to 5.7% from 5.4%.
Canada's biggest province, Ontario, lost 10,700 jobs last month, but declining participation in the job hunt allowed its unemployment rate to fall to eight per cent from 8.1%.
Quebec saw an employment gains of 8,000 and the jobless rate there fell to 7.7% from 7.9%
Most Atlantic provinces saw job declines last month.
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