Canadian economy sheds 28,900 jobs

News Source: http://www.applymortgageonline.ca/

April’s job decline was the biggest since December, Statistics Canada says. Unemployment steady at 6.9 per cent as fewer Canadians looked for work.

The Canadian economy unexpectedly lost 28,900 net jobs in April, fewer people looked for work, and the unemployment rate remained stuck at 6.9 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday.

Economists had anticipated an increase of at least 12,000 jobs for April, according to Thomson Reuters. Instead, April saw the biggest decline since December 2013, when the economy shed 44,000 jobs.

The disappointing data comes amid growing concerns about the lack of reliable information about Canada’s labour market along with allegations some employers are abusing Ottawa’s controversial temporary foreign worker program.

Earlier this week, the federal Auditor General was critical of another Statscan employment-related survey, saying it doesn’t provide enough information on where and what kind of jobs are vacant.

The monthly data in Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey is so volatile as to be almost meaningless, many private sector economists have complained.

“I would say our labour statistics are not as good as they should be,” said CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal. “The sample is not big enough. It’s extremely volatile and you get a lot of noise. In one month you gain 50,000 jobs. The month after, you lose 50,000.”

Most economists say it takes at least three months of data to establish a trend. The longer-range view in Friday’s job creation report wasn’t encouraging.