U.S. data shows underreported job gains over last two months
In a bit of long-awaited good news on the economic front, both the U.S. and Canadian economies recorded positive job gains in September. Canada added 61,000 new jobs, all of which were either in the public sector or in self-employment. (By itself, the return of teachers to the classroom contributed 40,000 jobs.) Meanwhile, after months of lacklustre job figures, the U.S. economy saw payrolls add 103,000 new jobs. The Labour Department report also said the doom and gloom of past months may have been slightly premature—the U.S. created 100,000 more jobs over the past two months than had been previously reported. As a result of September’s job gains, Canada’s unemployment rate now stands at 7.1 per cent.