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May 10 2013 - Statistics Canada little change in employment in April and the unemployment rate remained at 7.2%. However, employment is up by 163,000 compared with a year ago, all in full-time jobs. Alberta was the only province showing an increase in jobs in April, while it fell in Manitoba, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Seasonally adjusted, unemployment rates vary from 12.4% (Newfoundland and Labrador) to 4.0% (Saskatchewan).

Rates for all the provinces were (previous month in brackets):

• Newfoundland and Labrador 12.4% (12.3%)
• Prince Edward Island 11.6% (12.1%)
• Nova Scotia 9.0% (9.5%)
• New Brunswick 10.9% (10.5%)
• Quebec 7.8% (7.7%)
• Ontario 7.7% (7.7%)
• Manitoba 5.8% (5.0%)
• Saskatchewan 4.0% (3.9%)
• Alberta 4.4% (4.8%)
• British Columbia 6.4% (7.0%)

Ken Georgetti, Canadian Labour Congress President, commented:

"Unemployment remains unacceptably high for younger Canadians and only a small fraction of those without work are able to gain access to Employment Insurance benefits. The government is abandoning these young workers.

"It is really stunning that only 13% of unemployed workers in the 15-to-24 age group were able to able to qualify for Employment Insurance in 2012 - a mere 7.0% of unemployed women and 17% of unemployed men. This speaks to the harmful changes that Ottawa introduced to the EI system in 2012.

"We have 1.4 million unemployed Canadian workers. Yet the federal government has assisted employers to import hundreds of thousands of vulnerable migrant workers paying them less than prevailing wages. This has not helped match Canadians looking for work with the jobs employers need to fill. We should be concerned that there are no jobs for the unemployed and the TFWP is part of the problem."

Canadian Labour Congress Senior Economist Angella MacEwen provided a quick analysis:

"A gain of over 12,000 jobs in April was not enough to move the unemployment rate, which remained stuck at 7.2%. In a change from the recent trend, all of the employment gains were due to public sector hiring, as the private sector shed 20,000 jobs in April.

Youth unemployment continues to be a serious concern. The real unemployment rate for youth age 15-24 increased by half a percentage point over last April, to 20.9%."