Canada appears to be in the midst of a job boom that has hit almost every region and sector. From education to agriculture, from New Brunswick to B.C., workers are in demand.

The result: the country's unemployment rate has dipped below six per cent for the first time in more than three decades.

"Our unemployment rate is now at its lowest level since November 1974," Royal Bank economist Dawn Desjardins told CTV News.

"Wage growth is picking up. So, (there's) a very bright picture for the Canadian economy, the Canadian consumer, and even the housing markets."

Only 5.9 per cent of Canadians were unemployed in September, down from six per cent in August, according to a Statistics Canada report released on Friday.

Canada's vigorous economy -- the Canadian dollar closed trading at US$1.0185 on Friday -- created new employment spots for 51,000 people last month, mostly in the public sector.

"It's a blow-away report and it's lifting the dollar," BNN's Michael Kane told CTV Newsnet on Friday.

"It blew away all of the estimates that were out there and it has pushed the loonie up to a 31-year high."

At one point on Friday, the Canadian dollar rose to US$1.02. Part of the loonie's strong showing was due to revised American figures about job growth in the U.S. in August. More jobs were created that month than previously reported. That eased fears of a prospective recession in that country that would negatively effect the Canadian economy.

But analysts say that one of the main reasons for the loonie's surge today was home grown. The Statistics Canada survey stated the largest employment increases in September were in educational services, followed by public administration; professional, scientific and technical services; and agriculture.

September saw the creation of 25,000 new education jobs, bringing gains for the past few months to 58,000 in the sector effectively and eliminating summer declines.

The new jobs helped to boost the total number of positions created in the country this year to 283,000, representing an increase of 1.7 per cent for the period.

"We were expecting that in September about 17,500 jobs would be created, in fact, 51,100 jobs were created. I can't remember seeing anything this bullish for the market place," Kane said.

However, manufacturing jobs continue to decline representing a drop of 3.7 per cent for the first nine months of the year likely due to the soaring loonie and foreign competition.

Core age workers -- Canadians between the ages of 25 and 45 -- experienced their first significant gains for 2007 with more than 40,000 people finding employment.

Older workers also benefited from Canada's economic growth with 23,000 people 55 years of age and older entering into the workforce, representing a growth rate faster than the core age group.

The older age bracket saw a total increase of 5.6 per cent with older women outpacing older men.

Ontario's embattled manufacturing sector experienced significant job creations with 30,000 new full-time positions opening up last month for the province. However, Ontario's job growth rate, 1.2 per cent, still lagged behind the national average, 1.7 per cent, for 2007.

Alberta remains Canada's employment capital with employment increasing in the province by 3.4 per cent for the first three quarters of the year.

Alberta's boom drove the province's jobless rate down to a meagre 3.4 per cent, representing the lowest rate in the country.

Statistics Canada reports Canadians are working longer hours but for more pay. The number of hours worked nationally rose by 2.1 per cent while employees earned 4.2 per cent more per hour last month compared to September 2006.

The increase represents the largest wage increase since 1997, when data for the national labour force survey was first collected.

The Canadian Press has compiled a list of the September unemployment rates in select cities. The August figure is in brackets:

- St. John's, N.L. 6.5 (6.3)

- Halifax 6.2 (6.2)

- Saint John, N.B. 4.8 (4.3)

- Saguenay, Que. 8.5 (8.2)

- Quebec 4.7 (4.5)

- Trois-Rivieres, Que. 8.2 (8.0)

- Sherbrooke, Que. 6.1 (5.7)

- Montreal 7.1 (7.0)

- Gatineau, Que. 5.7 (6.0)

- Ottawa 5.1 (5.3)

- Kingston, Ont. 6.3 (6.6)

- Toronto 6.9 (7.0)

- Hamilton 5.5 (5.5)

- Kitchener, Ont. 5.5 (5.6)

- London, Ont. 6.1 (6.2)

- Oshawa, Ont. 6.6 (6.6)

- St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 8.1 (7.7)

- Sudbury, Ont. 6.4 (6.3)

- Thunder Bay, Ont. 6.6 (6.6)

- Windsor, Ont. 9.9 (9.9)

- Winnipeg 4.1 (4.2)

- Regina 6.0 (6.1)

- Saskatoon 4.2 (4.8)

- Calgary 3.1 (3.3)

- Edmonton 4.1 (3.9)

- Abbotsford, B.C. 4.4 (4.5)

- Vancouver 3.7 (3.8)

- Victoria 3.8 (3.6)