www.peoplestandup.ca Ouch. Or as chief economist Avery Shenfeld at CIBC World Markets put it: “Suddenly the jobs market doesn’t look quite so rosy in Canada.” It sure doesn’t. After a year in which employment growth remained inexplicably strong through thick and thin, it came thumping back to earth in October with the loss of 54000 jobs. That’s the biggest monthly decline since early 2009, when we were in the middle of a recession. As a result, national unemployment ticked up to 7.3 per cent from 7.1 per cent in September. There were particularly big jumps in Quebec, to 7.7 per cent from 7.3, and Ontario, to 8.1 per cent from 7.6. On the other hand, the details of this report suggest that it’s more likely to reflect a temporary soft spot in economic growth than the beginning of a long slump. The most likely scenario is that Canada – blessed by the presence of plentiful oil and the absence of a housing crisis – has finally seen its unusually strong economy dragged down by faltering exports to the US Given this, growing signs of a return to health south of the border provide reason to believe that Canadian job creation will climb back to a healthier pace over the coming year. When we look back at Canada’s volatile monthly job numbers over this year, we can see a sharp decline in the trend of employment growth. Over the past three months, average job growth was flat. By comparison, the first three months of this year showed robust average growth of 27600. The major problem …

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