Social sector leads job growth in 2003.

OTTAWA -- Canada's employment growth in 2003 was led by the health care and social assistance sector, according to Statistics Canada.

In December, employment increased by an estimated 53,000, mostly in full-time work. More that 28,000 of those jobs were created in the health care and social assistance sector.

During 2003 the social sector was one of the main engines of employment growth. Health care and social assistance posted the largest increase, adding 77,000 jobs (+4.7%) since the start of the year. Employment in this sector has been rising since the summer of 2001.

Job gains over the past four months total 219,000 (+1.4%), four times the increase of 52,000 (+0.3%) observed during the first eight months of the year.

During 2003 the proportion of the working-age population holding a job (employment rate), rose to an all-time high of 62.7% in December; the labour force participation rate reached a record level of 67.7%.

For a fourth straight month, the number of jobs increased for both adult women and adult men. In December, employment increased by 33,000 among adult women, bringing gains over the year to 145,000 (+2.4%). Their unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points in December to 6.0%. The employment rate (57.5%) and the participation rate (61.2%) of adult women both reached record levels in December.

In December, employment among adult men grew by 20,000. Their unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 6.1%, the result of a large decrease in the number of adult men looking for work. With gains at the beginning and at the end of the year, employment among adult men increased by 112,000 (+1.6%)over 2003.

In contrast to the year before, labour market conditions remained weak for youths throughout 2003. Youth employment was little changed in December and finished the year up 0.6%, well below the growth rate of 4.6% in 2002. As more youths were looking for work, their unemployment rate rose 0.7% in 2003.