Canada's employment continues upward trend in March
Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Apr, 2023 03:40 PM
Canada's employment grew by 35,000, or 0.2 per cent, in March, following little change in February and strong growth in January and December, Statistics Canada said.
Employment has generally trended up since September 2022. Over that period, the number of people employed has increased by 383,000, or 1.9 per cent, the national statistical agency added on Thursday.
Employment gains in March were concentrated among private sector employees and there was little change in the number of public sector employees and self-employed workers, the agency said.
According to the agency, for the fourth consecutive month, the unemployment rate was five per cent in March, just above the record low of 4.9 per cent observed in June and July of 2022, Xinhua news agency reported.
Total hours worked rose 0.4 per cent in March and were up 1.6 per cent on a year-over-year basis, the agency said.
Average hourly wages rose 5.3 per cent to 33.12 Canadian dollars ($24.5) on a year-over-year basis in March, compared with 5.4 per cent in February, Statistics Canada added.
Gagandeep Singh, 21, was swarmed and beaten near Highway 97 and McCurdy Road in Kelowna after he got off a transit bus on March 17, CTV News reported. Gagandeep was heading home after grocery shopping when he encountered a group of young boys, between 12 and 15 years-old on the bus.
The immigration minister anticipates the one-click option would only be in effect as long as the government is swamped with backlogged citizenship applications. But the Conservative party's immigration critic worries it would "cheapen" an otherwise special moment for newcomers.
A decision dated Thursday says the six-year sentence handed to Corey Hurren in March 2021, less a year for the time he spent in custody before his sentencing, was "entirely fit." Hurren, a sausage-maker who served with the military's Canadian Rangers, had pleaded guilty to seven weapons charges and one mischief charge for his actions on the morning of July 2, 2020.
Allen Brooks was convicted by a provincial court judge in 2020 for sexual assaults that allegedly happened in 1990 and 1997 while he was working as an X-ray technician at a hospital in Maple Ridge. Brooks was acquitted of a third count of sexual assault that was alleged to have occurred in 2001.
Mounties say they were called to the parking lot of the Port Place Mall in the Vancouver Island city on Monday after the man was reportedly threatening people with a stick and the toy bow and arrow.
The report prompted Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim to say on Thursday that he was disgusted by its "insinuations," and he wouldn't be part of the conversation if he was Caucasian. Eby says the majority of tools to fight international interference are in federal hands, but he needs to know if there's any way for B.C. to "close any gaps" that the province may have available to it.
