Canada added 15,000 jobs in April, enough to push jobless rate to record-low 5.2%

Canada's economy added 15,300 jobs in April, the third monthly increase in a row after a major hit from the Omicron variant earlier in the year.

Economists had been expecting about 40,000 jobs to be added, and though it was well short of that figure, the data released by Statistics Canada Friday was enough to push the jobless rate down to a new record low of 5.2 per cent.

The jobless rate in March had already hit the lowest level ever on records dating back to 1976, at 5.3 per cent.

Most provinces added jobs, while the main factor dragging the national number down was a loss of 27,000 jobs in Quebec.

While the total number of jobs inched higher overall, full- and part-time work each went in opposite directions, as the economy lost 32,000 full-time jobs and replaced them with 47,000 part-time ones.

Stephen Brown, an economist with Capital Economics, says the numbers were certainly weaker than hoped, but that weakness may have been caused by temporary factors that have since dissipated.

"The unseasonably cold start to the spring across much of the country may help to explain why construction and retail trade employment weakened, while Statscan reported that the decline in hours worked was largely a result of the spike in coronavirus cases, which caused nearly one in 10 workers to take time off," he said.