Ontario enjoyed an impressive month of labour force gains in November.

The latest data from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey shows employment in the province rising by 68,000, or 0.9 percent for the month. November marks the sixth month in a row in which employment has increased, and brings the total employment gains in the province over that period to 421,000.

Ontario now has nearly 115,000 more jobs than it did before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020.

Across the country, employment rose by 154,000 (+0.8 percent) to 19.3 million, and was 186,000 (+1.0 percent) higher than its pre-COVID level. The unemployment rate fell to 6.0 percent, which is within 0.3 percentage points of what it was in February 2020.

Employment increased in both the services-producing and goods-producing sectors in November. Both full-time (+80,000; +0.5 percent) and part-time (+74,000; +2.1 percent) work increased, and employment gains were spread across six provinces.

Employment in construction was unchanged for the third consecutive month.

Statistics Canada collected its latest Labour Force Survey during the week of November 7 to 13. Public health measures in place during the reference week were largely similar to those in place in October. In some jurisdictions, most notably in Ontario and Quebec, capacity limits and distancing requirements had been further eased in settings where proof of vaccination is required.

The national agency is cautioning that recent labour-market trends may be combining to create deep shortages.

It says that job vacancy data for September and the labour force survey results for November look very similar to conditions last seen in the summer of 2019 when unemployment rate fell to a record low, average wages increased after a prolonged period of little growth, and job vacancies ticked upwards.

Such conditions, it says, are likely to contribute to new or worsening imbalances in provincial, regional and local labour markets, including shortages of specific skills, or geographic mismatches between vacant positions and available workers with the skills to fill them.