Last week’s employment survey from Statistics Canada has been revised, showing stronger performance than the disappointing 200 jobs reported in the original release. The new report showed that a much improved 42,000 jobs had been created in July.
According to CBC News, the agency’s error came because a program used to calculate job gains and losses hadn’t been updated. Instead of the loss of 60,000 part-time positions shown in the original report, Statistics Canada said that the same number of jobs had actually been gained.
The number of new jobs exceeded the expectations of many economists. Predictions from The Globe and Mail ranged between 15,000 and 30,000 new positions to be shown by the revision. The source also reported that HSBC Bank Canada Chief Economist David Watt expected the unemployment rate to hold steady at 7.1 percent, rather than dropping to 7.0 percent as the original release showed. In fact, the jobless rate still dropped to 7.0 percent, based on revised figures.
Educational services added the most jobs, at 46,000. Overall, service industries increased employment by 68,000, while good-producing sectors lost around 26,000 workers.