Summer is most certainly over for B.C.
September jobs numbers from Statistics Canada reveal the province lost 18,000 jobs as the unemployment rate crept upwards by 0.2 percentage points to six per cent.
Most the of the losses targeted part-time work (-14,600 jobs), while the finance and real estate sector (-12,500 jobs) took the biggest hit overall, according to Friday’s data.
Accommodation and food services (-4,900 jobs) took the next biggest hit as the height of tourism season wrapped.
But with the school year beginning again, education services (+4,500 jobs) saw some notable gains. The tech sector (+4,600) was also among of the few highlights in a weak jobs report for the province.
Nationally, unemployment fell 0.1 percentage point to 6.5 per cent between August and September. Canada added a total of 46,700 jobs to the economy last month.
“The case for an even more aggressive [Bank of Canada] just took a big step back,” BMO chief economist Douglas Porter said in a note.
He described the national figures as “surprisingly sturdy” but posited that the Bank of Canada would likely be more inclined to cut its overnight rate by 25 basis points at the end of the month rather than 50 basis points.
“September’s jobs report does not change the picture of a labour market that has cooled notably since the Bank of Canada started raising interest rates,” TD Bank senior economist Leslie Preston said in a note.
“Some market participants are leaning towards a larger half point move after the Fed’s larger cut, but September’s job data will likely pare those bets back a bit.”
Like Porter, Preston forecasts a quarter-point interest rate cut on Oct. 23rd.
