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Manitoba’s unemployment rate fell to 5.0 per cent in September after reaching as high as 5.8 per cent in July, with Statistics Canada reporting another surprisingly strong month of job gains across the country.

Canada’s unemployment rate nudged down to a near four-decade low last month at 5.5 per cent, adding 53,700 jobs following a gain of 81,100 in August.

Since December, the country has added 358,100 jobs, the most in the first nine months of a year since 2002.

While the records show Manitoba shed 400 jobs between August and September, there was a significant bump in the number of full-time workers and a drop in part-time. Over the past 12 months, the province created a total of 5,700 new jobs, but they were very heavily weighted to full-time versus part-time (an additional 12,000 full-time jobs compared to a loss of 6,300 part-time.)

That is part of a national trend as well, where across the country, the economy added 70,000 full-time jobs in September, with part-time employment down 16,300.

John McCallum, an accounting and finance professor at the University of Manitoba who has studied labour force dynamics for a long time, said the September results are a significant show of strength for the province.

"Creating 12,000 full-time jobs over the course of the last 12 months is big," McCallum said.

That’s particularly apparent when compared to British Columbia, the only province with a lower unemployment rate than Manitoba in September, at 4.8 per cent. With a population and labour force four times the size of Manitoba’s, that province created only 23 per cent more full-time positions.

It’s not clear why there is such a discrepancy between full- and part-time jobs, but as McCallum points out, "It’s full-time employment where you get benefits and security."

The Manitoba economy, like the rest of the country, is in a slow-growth phase, but with the provincial population continuing to rise — up 7,800 since March — one economist pointed out there are significant small-scale investments being made to service that growing population base.

While some institutional forecasters, most notably the Conference Board of Canada, have been bearish on Manitoba’s potential economic growth because of the winding down of some Hydro projects, smaller-scale construction as well as a steady up-tick in multi-family residential has produced solid increases in employment.

The construction sector alone has added 4,600 new jobs in the province during the past 12 months — close to a 10 per cent growth rate — aided by a flurry of small- and medium-sized industrial projects.

Chuck Davidson, president of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, said, "Everything is pretty steady across the province. Everywhere you go, people seem to be hiring."

Davidson recently led a 20-person group to Flin Flon, where the major mining firm in the area, HudBay Minerals, is planning to wind down a mine in a couple of years.

But Davidson said even HudBay is looking for people.

"You hear it all over from the smaller companies to the larger ones like SkiptheDishes... they are always looking for people with certain skill sets."

The strong September jobs showing is likely to only reaffirm Bank of Canada expectations that the economy has developed a certain amount of resilience to trade headwinds and global economic uncertainties, giving it ammunition to buck the global trend of lower interest rates.

"Canada’s labour market seems to have been vaccinated against the global economic flu going around," Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets Inc., said in a note to investors.

The rise in national employment dropped the unemployment rate to 5.5 per cent from 5.7 per cent in August, near the lowest in the past four decades.

Economists were anticipating just 7,500 jobs in September, with the unemployment rate unchanged.

Canada’s dollar jumped after the report, rising 0.5 per cent against its U.S. counterpart early Friday morning, to trade at $1.3227 per U.S. dollar.

The underlying details of the report were not as strong as the headline number. While the gains were all full-time, they were entirely public-sector positions and self-employed. Private sector jobs dropped by 21,000, with continued weakness in goods-producing industries.

Few economists and investors believe, however, the country will be totally immune to a slowing global economy, and many expect the Bank of Canada will eventually be forced to cut interest rates. Swaps trading suggests one cut is still priced in over the next year.

"The Bank of Canada is likely to look through these gains and remain focused on outside Canada as it looks at a possible interest-rate cut at its next meeting," said Brett House, deputy chief economist at Scotiabank.

The Bank of Canada’s next rate decision is Oct. 30.

On the plus side, not only is employment growing, but so are wages. Hourly pay was up 4.3 per cent in September from a year earlier, accelerating from a 3.7 per cent pace in August. Thepast few months have seen the strongest year-over-year increases in a decade

Total hours worked in September were up 1.3 per cent from a year earlier, from a pace of 1.2 per cent in August.

The economy added 70,000 full-time jobs in September, with part-time employment down 16,300.

Canada has added almost 300,000 new full-time jobs this year. One difference in the September report from recent trends is most of the job gains reflected largely lower unemployment levels rather than rising labour force participation.

The number of unemployed Canadians fell by 46,900 in September, while the labour force increased by just 6,800.

September’s gains were led by the health-care sector, which produced 30,000 jobs; the information sector led losses.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Bloomberg and Canadian Press