For yet another month, London’s unemployment rate is on the rise.
According to Statistics Canada, London’s unemployment rate rose from 7.9 per cent in January to 8.0 per cent in February.
Statistics Canada says the economy shed about 7,000 jobs last month, although the number was tiny enough to leave the unemployment rate unchanged at 7.0 per cent.
But the decline took some of the shine off January's strong 29,000 increase and it was well below economists' expectation that about 15,000 jobs would be added last month.
February continues the pattern of up and down months in a sputtering Canadian job market.
Statistics Canada says over the past 12 months, the economy has managed to only add about 95,000 new jobs and few since August.
The bright spots in the report were that all the job losses were part time, with full-time employment actually rising by 18,900.
As well, the weakness came in the public sector, as declines in health care and social assistance, education services as well as transportation and warehousing contributed to a 51,000 dip in the labour pool.
With files from The Canadian Press
