Canada adds 10,000 jobs in September

Canada's economy added 10,000 jobs last month, about what economists were expecting, as a surge in full-time work was offset by a loss of part-time positions.

Statistics Canada reported Friday that the jobless rate stayed at 6.2 per cent during the month, tying an almost nine-year low dating back to October 2008.

It was the tenthmonth in a row that the economy added jobs. That's the longest streak of monthly job gains since 2009, the beginning of the financial crisis.

The economy added112,000 full-time jobs during the month, the data agency calculated in its monthly Labour Force Survey. But that surge came at the expense of an almost equally large loss of 102,000 part-time jobs.

Despite the relatively modest headline number, Bank of Montreal economist Doug Porter noted that the gain in full-time jobs is the second-largest increase on recordsdating back 40 years.

• Hurricanes push U.S. monthly job number down for 1st time since 2010

"Make no mistake, this is a strong report despite the somewhat sub-par headline job gain," he said.

He addedthat hourly wages rose at a 2.2 per cent annual pace during the month the fastest pace since the spring of 2016. "A full-time jobs bonanza and the ongoing rebound in wages were the obvious highlights."

Much of the gains came in Ontario, which added 35,000 jobs. Every other province either added a small number of jobsor lost a few thousand, led by Alberta (7,800 jobs), whileQuebec lost 7,600 andBritish Columbia lost 6,700.

The job surge pushed Ontario's jobless rate down to 5.6 per cent,its lowest since the height of the tech boom in 2000. British Columbia's jobless rate remained the lowest in the country, however, at4.9 per cent.