Labour Force Survey, March 2000

Employment grew by an estimated 30,000 jobs in March, continuing the upward trend that began three years ago. The increase in March was similar to the average monthly rise over the last three years (+34,000). The growth in employment was accompanied by similar growth in the labour force, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged for a fourth straight month at 6.8%.

Employment gains were spread among youths (+6,000), adult men (+12,000) and adult women (+13,000). Adult women (those 25 and older) contributed almost two-thirds of the increase in full-time employment in March (+21,000). Compared with the same time last year, full-time employment among adult women is up 4.3% (+182,000).

Employment increased slightly for adult men, continuing an upward trend. For this group, employment is up by 225,000 (+3.4%) compared with a year ago.

In March, the rise in employment among youths (aged 15 to 24) was similar to the average monthly increase of 8,000 since January 1998, when growth in jobs for youths began to pick up. In March, the youth employment rate was 55.8%, up 4.7 percentage points from January 1998.

Unemployment rates for youths, adult men and adult women were all unchanged from February. However, unemployment has declined for these groups over the last year. For youths, the rate has fallen 1.2 points to 13.0%. The unemployment rate for both adult men and adult women was 5.6% in March, down 1.3 points for men and down 0.8 points for women compared with a year earlier.

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