Canadian businesses added 96,700 employees to their payrolls in May, taking unemployment to its lowest rate in 32 years.

Canada’s official jobless rate stands now at 6.1 percent, according to Statistics Canada.

Banks and oil companies are spearheading job creation in Canada where 150,800 full-time jobs were added and 54,200 part-time positions were cut in May.

The world’s eighth largest economy is growing now at its fastest since 2000, fuelled by rising consumer spending and higher prices for its commodity exports.

Canadian wages rose 3.8 percent in the last 12 months while consumer prices rose by 2.4.

Wages in Alberta, where an oil boom is causing severe labour shortages, rose 7.3 percent. Petro-Canada and other oil-companies in Alberta are struggling to find suitably skilled workers for new projects in Alberta.

Unemployment in Alberta is just 3.4 percent.

9 Jun 2006