An increase of 2,500 people into the local labour force caused unemployment to rise alongside the number of new jobs.
All of September’s new jobs came from Ottawa, with the number of people working increasing to 534,600, up from 532,300 in August. In Gatineau, those employed dropped from 172,800 to 171,500.
Compared with September of last year, employment in Ottawa-Gatineau is up 1.8 per cent. The number doesn’t compare favourably to cities like Toronto (which is up 2.2 per cent since last September), St. Catherines/Niagara (3.4 per cent) or Saskatoon (7.3 per cent), but it’s markedly stronger than Montreal (1.5 per cent), Kingston (1.2 per cent) or Kitchener-Waterloo/Cambridge, which saw employment decline by 0.2 per cent.
The region saw 11,100 more people working in the information, culture and recreation sector than last September, up to 42,600 from 31,500.
People working in the retail and wholesale sector increased by 6,100, with 87,500 employees compared to 81,400 last year.
In the information and communications technology industry, 49,700 people are working, which is 5,000 more than last year.
Construction jobs rose by a more modest amount of 1,900. Now, 42,700 work in that sector compared to 40,800 in September 2011.
Not all sectors saw increases. Business, building and other support services sector employees dropped to 27,100, a decrease of 7,000 from last September. Manufacturing also slowed down, with 3,800 less jobs than last year.
The public administration sector is starting to see a modest decline in employees, but the 162,900 jobs still compare favourably to last September’s 155,300 with an increase of 7,600.
Sector-specific data is not seasonally adjusted, and therefore can’t be compared to other months, said Statistics Canada analyst Vincent Farrao.
The number of 15 to 24 year olds working in the region dropped by almost nine per cent compared with last September, down to 99,800 from 109,500.
Employees aged 25 to 54, the “core age” workers, rose by 3.4 per cent. Now, there are 507,500 workers in that age group compared to 507,500 last year.
Last month also saw a slight increase in workers over the age of 55, up to 103,000 from 99,300 – a 3.7 per cent shift.
The 1,000 new jobs came after three months of local job losses. August saw the lowest level of employment in all of 2012.
For Canada as a whole, September was one of the strongest job creation months of the year with 52,100 new jobs across the country – most of them in Ontario. It was an increase five times greater than economists expected.
Ontario saw a total of 31,600 new jobs, and Quebec and Manitoba also saw gains.
But it wasn't enough to put a dent in the unemployment rate, which edged up one-tenth of a point to 7.4 per cent. That's because while thousands of Canadians found work in September, even more – 72,600 – joined the labour force.
Still, the pop in new jobs was unexpected given that most economic indicators of the past few months have presented a picture of a domestic economy struggling to maintain momentum amid the general slowdown around the world, particularly the United States, Europe and China.
September's increase brought year-over-year job creation to 175,000.
The report was even stronger than August's 34,000 jobs increase, which were all part-time.
Last month, the vast majority were full-time and all in the private sector, although roughly two-thirds were in the self-employment category – jobs that economists say are often lower-paying and less productive.
Statistics Canada said most of the new jobs were taken by workers in the core 25-54 age group, and mostly by men in the first notable increase in employment by men since March of last year.
"With this increase, the employment level for core-aged men is back to its pre-recession peak of October 2008," the agency said, although the rate of employment remains slightly below that of four years ago.
Statistics Canada said the biggest gains occurred in the retail and wholesale trade sectors, which saw some 34,000 jobs created, while the number of construction jobs rose by 29,000, which has been weak in recent months.
Work in the information, culture and recreation industries saw an increase of about 24,000, and there were about 8,700 new agriculture jobs in the month.
Detracting from the positives were the loss of 19,000 workers in a general category called other services, and a 17,000 decrease in business, building and other support services.
With files from Canadian Press
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