Quebec spearheaded Canada’s employment performance for the second month in a row by adding 38,300 jobs in September, bringing the province’s unemployment rate to 6.9 per cent, its lowest since 2008.

Ontario (16,200) and Alberta (13,300) also saw boosts in employment numbers, as 67,000 jobs were added Canada-wide in the final month of the third quarter, sustaining the unemployment rate at 7 per cent.

The third quarter as a whole saw employment gains of 62,000, while the figure is up by 139,000 compared to a year ago.

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Snapshot: Canada’s Economy

	End August	End September
Unemployment rate (%)	7	7
Employment rate (%)	60.9	61.1
Labour force participation rate (%)	65.5	65.7
Number unemployed	1,361,100	1,363,100
Number working	18,049,500	18,116,700
Youth (15-24) unemployment rate (%)	12.7	13.4
Men (over 25) unemployment rate (%)	6.3	5.5
Women (over 25) unemployment rate (%)	7	5

Source: Statistics Canada

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An employment boost of 13,000 will be seen as a big positive for Alberta, where a struggle against oil prices and the Fort McMurray wildfire has put the economy on the back foot. Jobs are down and unemployment up compared with a year ago, but the outlook is more positive in the short term.

Ontario continues to prosper with employment now up 82,000 in the last 12 months. In the same time period, the unemployment rate has edged down by 0.3 percentage points to 6.6 per cent.

British Columbia continues to outdo the other provinces with an unchanged unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent. The 2.6 per cent increase in employment over the last 12 months is also the fastest of all the provinces.

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Canada’s Provinces Compared

	Jobs change September	Unemployment rate (%)
1)     British Columbia	-600	5.7
2)     Manitoba	-2,100	6.4
3)     Ontario	16,200	6.6
4)     Saskatchewan	300	6.8
5)     Quebec	38,300	6.9
6)     Nova Scotia	-1,800	8.1
7)     Alberta	13,300	8.5
8)     New Brunswick	4,400	9.3
9)     Prince Edward Island	200	10.8
10)  Newfoundland & Labrador	-1,200	13.6
CANADA	67,000	7

Source: Statistics Canada

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Industry Perspective

Public administration employment rose by 19,000 for the month and has increased 22,000 over the year, or 2.4 per cent.

Other strong-performing industries include educational services, seeing a rise of 17,000 in employment for September and a year on year increase of 25,000 (2 per cent).

Transporting and warehousing saw a small rise in employment of 8,300 in September, while 14,000 fewer people were working in the health care and social assistance field for the month, although the figure is up 33,000 in the last 12 months.

A significant rise of 50,000 people was seen in the self-employment field in September, driven by health care and social assistance, followed by professional, scientific and technical services.

Both the private sector and the public sector showed little change for the month. However, private sector employment has grown by 106,000 for the year.

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