October 06, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 23, 1428

OTTAWA: Canada’s unemployment rate dipped 0.1 percentage points to 5.9 per cent in September, its lowest level in 33 years, with 51,000 mostly full-time jobs created, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

It was the first time since November 1974 that the jobless rate has fallen below 6.0 per cent, stumping analysts who had predicted a small increase from 6.0 per cent in August to 6.1 per cent in September. So far this year, employment among persons over 55 has been growing at a faster pace than all other groups, up 23,000 in September.

The largest employment increases by sector were in educational services, followed by public administration; architectural, engineering and design services as well as management, scientific and technical services; and farming..

Statistics Canada also said employees earned 4.2 per cent more per hour in September than they did in September 2006 — the largest year-over-year increase in average hourly wages since the government agency began collecting this information in 1997.— AFP