OTTAWA - Canada's unemployment rate was pushed back down to a 30-year low in December, thanks to 62,000 people who found jobs. The unemployment rate was 6.1 per cent last month, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada released
Friday.
Employment grew by 2.1 per cent over the course of the year in 2006, the highest growth rate since 2002 and the fourteenth consecutive year of employment increases in Canada.
The high number of Canadians flocking to Alberta in search of jobs in 2006 helped to push the province's employment rate up. By adding 109,000 jobs to its labour market, Alberta saw its largest growth rate in 26 years. The booming province represents only 10 per cent of working-age Canadians but it was responsible for almost one-third of all employment growth in 2006.
Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia also had a solid year in employment, finishing the year above the national employment growth rate.
In total, seven provinces hit record high employment rates while six reached 30-year record low unemployment rates.

Last month there were gains in both full and part-time employment but for the whole year it was full-time employment that accounted for 80 per cent of the employment gains.
Average hourly wages were an estimated $20 in December, a 2.6 per cent increase from the year before, the data revealed.

Alberta surpassed Ontario as the province with the highest hourly wages.

Workers there were making an average of $21.60 an hour, an increase of 5.9 per cent from the rate in December 2005.

Some industries were hot last year, others were not. Employment increased in natural resources, business, building and other support services, finance, insurance, real estate and leasing, health care and social assistance and construction.

The industries that took a hit and saw losses in employment included manufacturing and information, culture and recreational services.

A record number of women were cashing a paycheque in December, Statistics Canada
said. The proportion of women aged 25 and over working last month hit a record high and brought their unemployment rate to a 30-year low, lower than that of adult men.