Canada gained surprising 79,000 jobs in November

Canadaadded 79,000 jobs last month as the country's unemployment rate dipped 0.1 percentage points to 8.5 per cent.

Statistics Canada said Friday that full-time employment increased by39,000in November, the third consecutive monthly increase, while part-time employment grew by 40,000, following two months of declines.

The job growth far surpassed the consensus expectations of economists, who had been projecting the creation of 15,000 jobs, and for the unemployment rate to rise to 8.7 per cent.

Calling the jobs report "stunning," a TD Economics report took particular note of how broad-based the gains were.

"We can't help but be encouraged by the fact that all provinces [except Manitoba, and marginally so] were posting employment gains as of November."

"Unless productivity cratered, the data suggest decent and regionally based gains in real GDP in Q4," the report said.

In October, the country shed 43,200 jobs as the national unemployment rate came in at 8.6 per cent.

Statistics Canada said almostall the job growthlast monthwas attributable to the service sector, which added 73,000 jobs. Within that sector, roughly 38,000 positions were created ineducational services.

Employment in the goods-producing sectorshowed little changein November.

In the provinces

Ontario added 27,000 jobsin November the largest gain in the province since September2008. The province's unemployment rate, however, remained unchanged at9.3 per cent.

In Quebec, employment grew by21,000in November, pushing the province's unemployment rate down0.4percentage points to8.1 per cent.

Employment in Alberta rose by13,000last month, the largest monthly increase in the province since October2008.

The Royal Bank of Canada was cautiously optimistic on the report,but was not prepared todownplay the threat of unemployment moving forward.

"The labour data have been very volatile but, on net, 66,500 jobs were created in the three months to November, which supports our call for more robust growth in the fourth quarter," RBC economist Dawn Desjardins said.