Personal Advancement
More women earning paycheques: StatsCanThe country's jobless rate crept up slightly to 6.4% last month, still hovering around a 30-year low. The economy churned out 26,000 new full-time jobs, bringing the number of jobs created since the start of the year to 124,000 -- double the pace of growth posted over the first four months of last year. LINDA WHITE |
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 [ 2006-05-10 ] |
Women aged 25 and older have been gaining considerable momentum. With an employment increase of 39,000 in April, the share of adult women earning paycheques hit a record high of 58%, Statistics Canada reports in its most recent Labour Force Survey, released Friday.
Employment among women has grown by 1.5% since the start of the year -- a sharp contrast to the weak 0.2% employment growth among their male counterparts in the same time period.
That appears to be good news on the surface, but the reality is many women are underemployed, reports Eva Pakyam, manager of employment programs with the YWCA of Greater Toronto. "Women are underemployed for a variety of reasons, including lack of skills, childcare, shift work and lack of Canadian experience. We see women committed to their fields, but still finding it difficult ... We're working to bridge that gap."
Ontario led the country in job creation for the second consecutive month, adding 24,000 new jobs, mostly among adult women. The province has added 108,000 new jobs over the past 12 months as growth in service sector positions has outweighed losses in the sagging manufacturing sector.
The construction industry has created 31,000 jobs over the past 12 months. While much of that has been in the residential sector, the industrial, commercial and institutional sector has been busy, reports Scott MacIvor, CEO of the Ontario Construction Secretariat. "We're busy building malls, schools, hospitals and ancillary support services," he says. "Even if the housing market started to soften, we'd still be busy."
A settlement in the college strike may have contributed to a decline in youth employment in Ontario. "As classes resumed, this may have left less time for college students to work at a paid job in April," the survey speculates.
Still, the national jobless rate for youths stayed the same at 11.5% in April -- among the lowest rates recorded in 15 years. Part-time employment has remained around the same level over the past three years.
After outpacing the rest of the country for the past year, job creation in British Columbia and Alberta was relatively flat last month. Employment in Quebec fell by about 24,000 -- the first significant decline this year. The Atlantic provinces also produced new jobs, with more people working in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. Saskatchewan and Manitoba also showed job gains.
Thanks to strong full-time employment growth over the last year and an unemployment rate perched around its record low, wages continue to rise. The average hourly wage in April was up 3.1% from April 2005. Hourly wage rate growth continues to be highest in Alberta's tight labour market, at 6.8%, Statistics Canada reports.
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QUICK FACTS
Employment rose by an estimated 22,000 in April, Statistics Canada reports. For the second consecutive month, the bulk of those new jobs were created in Ontario.
Visit www.statcan.ca to learn more.
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