New Brunswick jobless rate dips in May with 700 new jobs

With the addition of 700 jobs to the New Brunswick economy in May, the provincial unemployment rate dipped to 8.4 per cent last month, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

The jobs that brought down the unemployment rate from 8.7 per cent in April were all full-time, the agency said.

Looking back over the past year, when 3,600 jobs were lost in the province, the New Brunswick economy gained6,800 new full-time positions, for a net increase of3,100 jobs.

The province's surge in full-time work over the last 12 months leads the Atlantic Canadian numbers.

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Moncton and Saint John both saw decreases in unemployment, but the provincial unemployment rate is still higher than the national rate of 6.6. per cent.

Moncton's rate is down to6.1 per cent from 6.9 per cent in April,and Saint John showed an unemployment rate of 5.6 per cent, down from 6.2 per cent in April.

Still, this month, all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador reported gains in job growth. Prince Edward Island led the Maritimes' numbers with 1,500 new jobs.

The country as a whole added a net 55,000 jobs in May, blowing past economists' expectations with a surge in full-time work. They only expected 15,000 jobs to be added.

May's strong figures mean the Canadian economy has added 317,000 jobs in the past year, the strongest 12-month total since February 2013.