(MENAFN– The Peninsula) AFP

Ottawa: Canada added 90,000 new jobs in April, mostly part-time, but its unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.1 percent, the national statistical agency said Friday.

The gains blew past analysts’ expectations of just 20,000 new jobs, following a 0.3 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate the previous month.

“Hiring surged in April, but so did population growth, leaving demand and supply in the labour market roughly unchanged,” Desjardins analyst Royce Mendes said in a research note.

The private sector, he pointed out, made the largest contribution to the job gains, but both the public sector and self-employment also increased.

The jobs data is unlikely to sway the Bank of Canada on interest rates, he concluded. Most economists expect the central bank to start cutting rates in June, following aggressive hikes in recent years to try to tame soaring inflation.

Statistics Canada said employment increased in April in professional, scientific and technical services (+26,000), accommodation and food services (+24,000), health care and social assistance (+17,000) and natural resources (+7,700). It fell, however, in utilities (-5,000).

Wage growth, meanwhile, slowed.

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