Canada's jobless rate rises unexpectedly

Canada lost 43,000 full-time jobs in October. The losses were a surprise and boosted Canada's unemployment rate to 8.6 percent. Part-time work decreased by 60,000 positions in October, with adult women and youth bearing the brunt of the drop.

After all the prognostications that Canada was starting a fragile recovery, the news of increased unemployment is bound to slow down the nation's upward climb out its economic nosedive. The housing market had recovered, and unemployment had eased in September. No-one anticipated October to have such a serious leakage of jobs, although a slight increase had been expected. All in all, 60,000 part-time jobs were lost in October across Canada. Considering that the United States saw a steeper increase in unemployment, Canada is, relatively-speaking, muddling along alright. Still, it seems to be Canada's public sector that is holding up the recovery more than the private sector, but even so, the public sector has been cutting jobs. The composition of the Canadian labour forces is changing, said Statistics Canada. The news that women over 25 years and youth were two demographic groups who lost the most jobs in October is troubling, although Statistics Canada said that October's employment levels for women were the same as one year ago. Manufacturing and natural resources are the two Canadian sectors bleeding the most jobs. The unexpected job losses overshadowed the creation of 16,500 full-time jobs. It is expected that today's bad news will affect the markets negatively. Consumer bankruptcies in Canada continued to climb in October, while business bankruptcies declined.