Canadian economy roars back with 95,000 new jobs

OTTAWA — Canada’s economy finally came out of hibernation last month, pumping out a whopping 95,000 new jobs — the vast majority full-time — in the biggest month of employment growth in more than a decade.

The monthly employment report report released by Statistics Canada Friday found that 18,600 of those jobs were created in Alberta last month, driving the province’s year-over-year job creation tally to 48,800.

Despite the gains, Alberta’s unemployment rate actually rose slightly in May, up 0.4 percentage points as more people looked for jobs, according to the federal agency.

The massive gain was the first major improvement of 2013 and many times greater than economists had expected, dropping the unemployment rate one-tenth of a point to 7.1 per cent.

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