Canada posted another surprisingly strong month for jobs in January, adding 48,000 positions in a month when analysts had expected a decline of 10,000. Coupled with December’s positive numbers, Canada added 104,000 jobs in the space of just two months, the fastest pace of job growth since before the financial crisis of 2008-09. The unemployment rate ticked down to 6.8 per cent, from 6.9 per cent in December. But driving the vast majority of that job growth is an explosion in part-time work. Canada added 32,400 part-time jobs in January, while full-time employment grew by 15,800.

Canada is creating far more part-time jobs than full-time ones. (Stock photo: Getty Images) Over the past year, the number of part-time jobs has expanded 5.6 per cent, while full-time employment grew a tepid 0.6 per cent. Ontario added virtually no full-time jobs over the past year — up 0.1 per cent, or 5,300 jobs. It added 84,000 part time jobs in that time, up 6.5 per cent. Across Canada, the share of employed people with a part-time job jumped to 19.6 per cent, from 18.8 per cent a year earlier.