Canada adds 11,000 jobs in October, jobless rate ticks down to 5.8%

The economy added 11,200 jobs last month despite fewer people looking for work, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The data agency’s monthly Labour Force Survey showed that more than 18,705,000 Canadians 15 or older said they had a job last month, an increase from 18,693,000 the month previous.

October’s numbers mean the economy has added almost 206,000 new jobs in the past year.

Economists had been expecting the monthly figure to be slightly higher, with the median forecast at 15,000 new jobs, among those polled by Bloomberg.

While a modest figure, the jobs bump in October was enough to inch the jobless rate down to 5.8 per cent during the month, since more than 18,000 people reported they voluntarily left the work force during the month, which means they aren’t classified as officially unemployed.

The economy added almost 34,000 full-time jobs during the month, but that was offset by a loss of 22,600 part-time positions.

By province:

• Quebec added more than 9,000 jobs.
• Manitoba added 1,800.
• Ontario and Saskatchewan added 2,500 each.

Everywhere else, there were fewer people employed in October than there were the previous month.