| Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil |
It’s a jobs report that was full of surprises. Statistic Canada says an eye-popping 52,100 jobs were added last month — five times more than economists expected. But in another surprise, the unemployment rate inched up a tenth of a point to 7.4 because more than 72,000 people joined the work force. Here in this province, the jobless rate is down about one percentage point from August. However, Liberal leader Stephen McNeil says the numbers were buoyed a bit by part- time and seasonal jobs that came along midway through the summer. He says close to 9,000 jobs have been lost province-wide in the past year, several thousand of them on the South Shore, and many of them, young people. McNeil says there’s a tidal wave of young people leaving to go elsewhere to find work.
McNeil predicts the loss of so many full-time jobs will accelerate. He says that, combined with the employment troubles facing youth, are worrying economic signals.
