Workopolis looks at online job postings, the Labour Force Survey and other data from Statistics Canada, and numerous key economic indicators to create a snapshot of the current state of the labour market in Canada – and to predict coming shifts.
Statistics Canada – Labour Force Survey – October, 2013
The Canadian economy created 13,200 jobs in October, leaving the national unemployment rate unchanged at its five-year low of 6.9%, according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada.
These gains came as full-time employment increased by 16,000 jobs last month, while part-time work fell by 2,700. This news beats most economists’ expectations that the unemployment rate would creep back up above the 7% mark for October.
Overall, this country has gained 214,000 jobs since this time last year with increases in both full-time and part-time work.
Online job postings
Online job postings are up by 1% nationally in October over the previous month. There were increased job advertisements in all regions except for Quebec in October – which saw a 5% decline. However, according to Statistics Canada, the Quebec economy actually added jobs last month.
Similarly, October saw an increase in job postings for every industry across the board except for Hospitality – But the 2% decline in postings for that industry isn’t a large enough dip to be significant.
It also appears that holiday hiring is continuing. We have seen a 2% increase in retail job postings since September, but an over 30% growth over the last three months combined. 
Forecast – Hiring trend to continue
Online job postings continue to increase month over month. This and the key economic indicators that we watch continue to be positive, and so Workopolis would expect November to be another positive month for hiring and predict that next month’s labour report will show similar slow but steady growth in employment.
