The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Canada's labour market added 41,000 jobs in February. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe says that Statistics Canada also reported Friday the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.8 per cent. Job gains, which were driven by full-time employment, were spread across several industries in the services-producing sector, with the strongest growth in accommodation and food services. The Bank of Canada's steep interest-rate hikes have helped cool the labour market over the past year by causing a pullback in spending. However, strong population growth appears to be offsetting some of those effects, including in the labour market. CIBC's Andrew Grantham says population growth "continues to flatter the Canadian jobs figures," though other measures of the labour market suggest weaker conditions. "There is evidence from a further decline in the employment ratio and increase in long-term unemployment that labour market conditions are continuing to weaken," he wrote. "However, this is happening only gradually and not in a way that demands an imminent reduction in interest rates." Meanwhile, wages continue to grow rapidly; average hourly wages were up 5 per cent from a year ago.