Total non-farm payroll employment fell by 51,400 in April, down 0.4% from March, StatsCan said Thursday.

There were job losses in 64% — or 195 of 305 — industries, unchanged from a month before.

The number of employees has fallen every month since they peaked in October 2008, bringing total losses over this period to 376,500.

StatsCan said the highest number of industries cutting payroll employment during this current economic downturn took place in January, when 229, or 75%, shed jobs.

Most of April’s job decline came in the service sector, particularly in universities; food services and drinking places; and in truck transportation.

This is the first month in which service-sector job losses outpaced those in the goods sector, StatsCan said.

April losses in the goods sector came mainly in support activities for mining, oil-and-gas extraction and specialty trade contractors, while manufacturing had its smallest job decline since the start of the recent economic downturn.

The provinces with the largest declines in non-farm payroll employment in April were Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba. Employment in the other provinces was little changed in the month.

Average weekly earnings, including overtime, of payroll employees was $820.53 in April, up 1.4% from a year earlier.

U.S. initial jobless claims jump

South of the border, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped last week and total claims lasting more than one week rebounded after a sharp drop the previous week.

Initial claims for jobless benefits rose 15,000 to 627,000 in the week ended June 20, the U.S. Labour Department said.

The number of continuing claims, or those drawn by workers for more than one week in the week ended June 13, climbed 29,000 to 6,738,000, after plunging 126,000 the previous week.

IE