Employment was little changed in March (+19,000 or +0.1%), while the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 6.7% as more people searched for work.

In the first quarter of 2017, employment gains totalled 83,000 or 0.5%. This growth is comparable to the last quarter of 2016 (+91,000 or +0.5%) and notably higher than the first quarter of 2016 (+36,000 or +0.2%).

Compared with 12 months earlier, employment increased by 276,000 (+1.5%), mostly in full-time work. Over the same period, the total number of hours worked rose 0.7%.