Canada: Unemployment rate declined 6.2%, matching most recent low of October 2008

"Employment was little changed in August (+22,000 or +0.1%). The unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage points to 6.2%, matching the most recent low of October 2008, the month prior to the 2008-2009 labour-market downturn," the Statistics Canada said on Friday.

Key highlights:

• An increase in the number of people working part time (+110,000) was mostly offset by a decline in the number of people employed full time (-88,000).
• In the 12 months to August, employment rose by 374,000 (+2.1%), with gains in both full-time (+213,000 or +1.5%) and part-time work (+161,000 or +4.6%). Over this period, the number of hours worked increased by 2.2%.
• Employment in finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing rose by 15,000 in August, bringing gains from 12 months earlier to 47,000 (+4.2%), with most of this increase concentrated from September 2016 to January 2017.
• In August, employment increased by 9,800 in transportation and warehousing, continuing an upward trend that began in February 2016. On a year-over-year basis, employment in this industry increased by 44,000 (+4.8%).