Canada surprises with 35,400 new jobs in January

Canada added 35,400 jobs in January, far surpassing the slight gain that economists had been expecting.

Statistics Canada said Friday that most of the jobs were part time. But the strong figure was enough to tick the jobless rate down by one-tenth of a percentage point, to 6.6 per cent.

Economists polled by Bloomberg had been expecting 5,000 new jobs, and the jobless rate to stay the same at 6.7.

The economy added almost 50,000 part-time jobs in the month, but that was partly offset by a loss of more than 11,000 full-time jobs.

By province, the jobs figures went up in Quebec, Alberta, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. At the same time, there was a decline in Saskatchewan.

Despite an ongoing oil patch slowdown, Alberta added 14,000 jobs during the month, the data agency said. That means the province has added 67,000 new jobs in the past year, good enough to maintain its position as the fastest growing province.

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