After a strong start to the year, Ottawa-Gatineau's labour market finished 2003 on a sour note with almost 5,000 jobs lost in December, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.
In its latest Labour Force Survey, Statscan reported that the capital region saw its unemployment rate push up last month to 7.2 per cent from seven per cent in November.
In December 2002, when the local labour market was in the midst of a 15-month growth spurt, the jobless rate was higher, at 7.7 per cent. However, at the time Statscan's Geoff Bowlby said the high figure reflected the vast number of people out looking for a job, rather than a lack of jobs available.
A year later much as changed. Between April 2002 and July 2003, the local labour market grew steadily as strong hiring in public administration, construction, healthcare and education offset the languishing tech sector.
That ended in August when job creation came to an abrupt halt. In the last four months of 2003, more than 10,000 jobs have been lost in Ottawa-Gatineau.
In December, the weak sectors of the local labour market were construction, education and the broad tech sector, including tech-related manufacturing. Public administration, or government employment, held steady. Retail/wholesale trade was the only significant gainer as retailers hired extra staff to handle the holiday rush.
Despite that year-end softness, the local labour market did enjoy a net gain for 2003. Employment was up by a total of 3.6 per cent, or 21,000 jobs.
"Ottawa-Gatineau had a strong year," said Statscan's Vincent Ferrao. "It's just toward the end of the year that things started to weaken."
Looking back at the year by sector, retail/wholesale trade was the strongest area of the local labour market in 2003, adding 12,000 new jobs. Strong federal government hiring pushed up public administration by 9,000 more jobs. Lastly, education services added about 6,000 new jobs.
TECH: SIGNAL STILL WEAK
On the downside, the tech sector continued to suffer from the malaise of the telecommunications industry. Employment in what Statscan dubs computers and telecommunication s finished the year at about 43,000, down another 25 per cent from a year ago as the major players continued to trim jobs. Local tech employment is down almost 37 per cent from its peak of 68,000 three years ago, by Statscan's measure.
The continued bleeding of the tech sector in 2003 meant further grief for local manufacturin. Ferrao said manufacturing employment was down by a whopping 35 per cent on the year, to 30,000.
That manufacturing employment figure, as well as Statscan's entire local labour report, is based on the results of a survey of about 580 households in Ottawa and Gatineau.
On Thursday the Conference Board of Canada released its latest economic report on the nation's capital. By its measure, the board said local manufacturing stabilized in 2003 and managed to eke out a gain in output of about 0.8 per cent.
On Friday, an economist at the Conference Board questioned Statscan's determination that the bloodletting in the local manufacturing sector has been that bad over the past year. However, he acknowledged that the board's report was based on data from October and therefore doesn't include the performance of the labour market over the part two months. Based on this latest data from Statscan, he said that growth estimate of 0.8 per cent will likely be revised downward.
