Canada's employment continues upward trend in March
Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Apr, 2023 03:40 PM
Canada's employment grew by 35,000, or 0.2 per cent, in March, following little change in February and strong growth in January and December, Statistics Canada said.
Employment has generally trended up since September 2022. Over that period, the number of people employed has increased by 383,000, or 1.9 per cent, the national statistical agency added on Thursday.
Employment gains in March were concentrated among private sector employees and there was little change in the number of public sector employees and self-employed workers, the agency said.
According to the agency, for the fourth consecutive month, the unemployment rate was five per cent in March, just above the record low of 4.9 per cent observed in June and July of 2022, Xinhua news agency reported.
Total hours worked rose 0.4 per cent in March and were up 1.6 per cent on a year-over-year basis, the agency said.
Average hourly wages rose 5.3 per cent to 33.12 Canadian dollars ($24.5) on a year-over-year basis in March, compared with 5.4 per cent in February, Statistics Canada added.
Thousands of Canadians had their flights cancelled or delayed due to poor weather, while hundreds of others were left stranded in Mexico after the vacation airline Sunwing axed their trips home. The company has since apologized and said the cancellations were due to winter storms that swept across the country before Christmas Day.
It says after a lengthy investigation by the department's major crime unit, three charges each of sexual assault and sexual interference have been laid against Pastor Edwin Alvarez. Police haven't released which Christian church the pastor was caring for, other than to say it was at a small, Metro Vancouver location.
The victim, a shelter resident, died in hospital around 10:30 p.m., after being stabbed during an altercation with another person near Yukon and West 5th Avenue. No arrests have been made.
While Trudeau is airborne, Joe Biden — fresh from his first presidential visit to the politically fraught southern border — will sit down for a bilateral meeting with Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Royal Canadian Air Force pilots and technicians will train at bases in the U.S. while those preparations are underway, with the F-35s scheduled to actually arrive in Canada no earlier than 2029. Officials confirmed in a briefing Monday that Canada will buy the 88 jets in a phased approach, with the initial price tag including infrastructure upgrades.
Vancouver is expecting a combination of rain and snow over the weekend and throughout much of next week, with a daytime maximum of -5 C on Tuesday. Environment Canada says nearly five centimetres of snow is possible over Metro Vancouver on the weekend.
