Health and social jobs lead the way - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Community Action, August 19, 2002

OTTAWA -- While employment in Canada rose 23,000 in July, the health and social services sector is well ahead of the job race.

Employment in this sector continued to build on gains in recent months, with an increase of 35,000.

Since March, employment in health care has grown by 69,000, mostly in hospitals. Added health care and social assistance and education employment has led to an upturn in public sector employment so far in 2002.

Employment rose 23,000 in July, while more people entered the labour market in search of work, causing the unemployment rate to edge up 0.1 percentage points to 7.6%. All of July's employment increase was in full-time work.

Since the labour market turned around in January, employment has surged 326,000 ( 2.2%) for an average monthly gain of 47,000. This is in sharp contrast to employment in the United States, which has been flat for the last five months.

Since October 2001, the proportion of the population that was active in the labour market in Canada (the participation rate) has jumped a full percentage point to 66.8%, the largest 10-month increase since 1984. In contrast, the U.S. participation rate has fallen and is now lower than the Canadian rate for the first time in over ten years.

For the second consecutive month, Alberta and British Columbia led employment growth, with respective increases of 26,000 and 16,000 in July.

Health care employment continued to build on gains in recent months, with an increase of 35,000. Since March, employment in health care has grown by 69,000, mostly in hospitals. Added health care and social assistance and education employment has led to an upturn in public sector employment so far in 2002.

More jobs continued to be added in manufacturing, which was up 14,000 in July and up 128,000 ( 5.8%) in the first seven months of 2002.

Jobs in health care and social assistance continued to rise, with an increase of 35,000 in July. This brings gains since March to 69,000 ( 4.5%), mostly in hospitals. July's increase was mainly in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta.

www.statcan.ca

Number of Employees
Canada and Health and social services sector

              June '02   July '02   change     July '01 to
                                    June '02   July 02
              000s                  July '02   change %

Canada        15,393.6   15,416.6   23.0       344.0   2.3

Health care
& social
assistance    1,591.30   1,626.5    35.2       97.2    6.4

Source: Employment, Earnings, and Hours (71-001-PIB)

Statistics Canada

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