Canada’s unemployment rate stalled at 7.4% in January, the same as the month before, as the economy’s pace of job growth slowed.

Statistics Canada reported this morning that 15,000 jobs were added to the country’s payrolls last month. That marked a substantial slowdown from the strong gains made in the last four months of the year, when 219,000 new jobs were added.

The small jobs increase was largely in line with economists’ expectations.

January’s job growth was again due to increases in full-time work. Almost 47,000 full-time jobs were created last month, bringing total full-time job growth in the past 12 months to 268,800.

Part-time employment, on the other hand, fell by 32,000 in January, holding job growth for part-time work to just 29,500 in the previous year.

January’s job growth was concentrated in the health care and social assistance fields, where hiring has been especially brisk in the last five months. Job growth was also noted in professional, scientific, and technical areas, with most of the gains taking place in Ontario and Alberta.

Employment in the struggling manufacturing sector was little changed for the second consecutive month (up by 4,800). Since November 2002, 71,000 factory jobs have disappeared as the higher loonie ate into exporters’ profit margins.

“The report was neither particularly strong, nor notably weak,” says BMO Nesbitt Burns.

TD Bank is a little more enthusiastic about the numbers, saying, “Canada’s job numbers may not have blown off the roof in January, but they still look mighty good when stacked on top of the outsized gains of the four previous months… it is clear that Canada’s job market is still putting up a valiant struggle against the headwinds created by the loonie’s flight — and so far, it is winning the battle. ”

There were also substantial revisions to December’s employment numbers, which were dropped to a gain of 39,000, down from the 53,000 gain that was initially reported.

“The Canadian employment report for January was not weak enough to justify more aggressive rate reductions by the Bank of Canada, nor was it strong enough to forestall one more cut. What is becoming apparent is that the days of Canada creating more jobs than the U.S. are coming to an end, as the Canadian employment situation slackens, and the U.S. jobs picture gradually brightens,” Nesbitt says.

CIBC World Markets says that disappointments on the growth front and a non-existent inflation threat leave the Bank of Canada “with plenty of room to cut in coming months — cuts that will be needed if the Canadian dollar is to remain on weakened track.”

This will be the last unemployment report before the next scheduled interest rate announcement from the Bank of Canada on March 2. The central bank cut its key rate to 2.5% from 2.75% in January.

TD agrees that today’s employment data will not weigh very heavily in the Bank’s decision. “The Bank will be focussing much more tightly on underlying economic growth and its implications for the output gap and inflation in the months ahead.”