Transportation and warehousing employment down 7.1% in the past 12 months

OTTAWA (Feb. 8, 2002) — Despite heavy declines in transportation and warehousing, employment in January registered its first major monthly increase in more than a year, Statistics Canada reported today.

According to the agency’s Labour Force Survey for January, the national unemployment rate dipped 0.1 percentage points to 7.9%. The gain was skewed toward part-time employment, where 46,000 new jobs were created. However, full-time employment also showed a strong gain of 30,000 new jobs, the first increase in four months.

Perhaps most encouraging for the economy was the gain of 25,000 jobs in manufacturing, the first increase in six months and the largest in two years, and 20,000 jobs in construction. This increase was consistent with a second report this morning that January housing starts rose 17.3% to an annualized 204,300, the most activity since May 1990.

Dragging down the positive news was transportation and warehousing, which fell 13,000 from December, mainly due to employment losses in air transportation. Employment in this sector was down 7.1% from January 2001, led by a sharp decline in trucking. The numbers are seasonally adjusted.