The economy managed to generate 12 thousand 500 new jobs in April helping to offset some of the massive job losses in March.
The small pickup kept the nationwide unemployment rate steady at 7.2 per cent.
It was a different story locally with the unemployment rate rising in Saint John from 9.1 in March to 9.2 per cent. The jobless rate provincewide also going up from 10.5 to 10.9 per cent.
Economists say all of April's gains came in the form of new employees, rather than self-employment and that's a good sign.
They also note there was an increase of about 36 thousand fulltime jobs while parttime employment fell by 23,600.
