OTTAWA: Statistics Canada said that the Canadian economy closed out 2014 by losing 4,300 net jobs in December, a slight dip that left the unemployment rate unchanged at 6.6 per cent.
Looking back at 2014, Canada added 185,700 net new positions during the year, with the bulk of the increase coming in the second half of the calendar. December was the second straight month the survey registered a small drop in employment. The economy shed 10,700 net jobs in November.
The unemployment rate matched the projection of economists, who had also predicted a net gain of 15,000 jobs for December. But those decreases followed large back-to-back increases of 74,100 in September and 43,100 jobs in October.
The Statistics Canada findings also show the youth unemployment rate moved up 0.3 percentage points in December to 13.3 per cent, but that 62,500 more young people had jobs compared to a year earlier.
Further the survey found that 23,600 fewer women between the ages of 25 and 54 were working last month. The unemployment rate, however, for that category remained unchanged at 5.2 per cent as fewer participated in the labour market.
And for men, the agency said 22,600 more males in the same age bracket found employment last month, which nudged the category’s jobless rate down 0.2 percentage points to 5.5 per cent its lowest level since 2008.
Accommodation and food services saw the biggest job one-month decline in the survey by sector, losing 32,800 positions in December. But over 2014, the category had added 38,300 jobs.
