Ontario saw a slight gain in the number of people working in August even though 23,000 full-time jobs disappeared, according to the latest Statistics Canada numbers.

The decline in full-time employment was offset by the addition of almost 36,000 part-time jobs.

However, the unemployment rate nudged up to 9.4 per cent from 9.3 per cent as the province's population and labour force both grew (the rate hit 9.6 per cent in June). Nationally, the unemployment rate rose to 8.7 per cent from 8.6 per cent.

The slight gain in the number of jobs is the second straight month of increases. "Despite these gains, employment in Ontario has declined by 207,000 (-3.1 per cent) since last October," Statistics Canada wrote Friday.

TD Economics added this observation about Ontario in a commentary: "The 3-month average change for that province now sits at a surprising +9,000."

Nationally, the Canadian economy created 27,100 jobs, which caught economic analysts offguard -- in a good way. "The market was fully expecting moderate job loss, probably in the order of 20,000 jobs lost -- and here we are with almost precisely the opposite, a very nice gain," said Eric Lascelles of TD Securities.

Christie Moore is one person in the good news column. Her internship at Starz Animation will be turning into a full-time job next week.

"It's totally thrilling. I was expecting to come out of this having no idea what I was going to do," she said.

But some interviewed in downtown Toronto said that friends had been looking for work for a long time, and it appeared harder than ever for younger workers to get that first foot in the door.

Some believe the period of economic contraction that began last October ended in June, and that the economy is poised to start growing again. However, economists caution that employment growth usually lags economic growth as companies try to put off hiring decisions.

Despite that, one bit of good news is that private-sector jobs in the province rose.

Vincent Ferrao of Statistics Canada said construction jobs went up by 16,000, while professional, scientific and technical services jobs went up by 24,000.

Business, building and other support services fell by 13,000, and there were 24,000 fewer people working in educational services. Manufacturing lost about 9,000 jobs, he said.

On balance, private-sector employment rose by 28,000 jobs to 4,249,000 in August, he said.

Ontario followed the national trend of slight a decline in public sector employment but gained slightly in self-employment, which ran counter to the national trend, Ferrao said.

Across Canada, this was a tough summer for youth employment, meaning those aged 15 to 24.

"Their average unemployment rate reached 19.2% over the summer months, the second highest rate since comparable data became available in 1977," Statistics Canada said.

In Ontario, the August figure was 19.3 per cent. The Canadian figure for August was 16.4 per cent, Ferrao said, adding the 19.2 per cent figure above was likely an average of the summer months.

Here are the unemployment rates for some selected Ontario cities (July rate in brackets):

  • Toronto - 10.1 (10.0)
  • Hamilton-  8.7 (8.2)
  • Kitchener - 9.9 (9.9)
  • Kingston - 6.8 (7.2)
  • London - 11.1 (10.9)
  • Ottawa - 5.2 (6.0)
  • Oshawa - 9.9 (9.7)
  • St. Catharines-Niagara - 9.9 (10.5)
  • Sudbury - 10.6 (9.8)
  • Windsor -  14.8 (15.2)

With a report from CTV Toronto's Zuraidah Alman and files from The Canadian Press