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Canada's unemployment rate rises to 6.9%, statistics show

A woman walks through the 2014 Spring National Job Fair and Training Expo in Toronto, Canada. (Reuters)

Canada's unemployment rate has risen 0.1 percent as the country experiences its biggest monthly drop in employment in five years. 

Statistics Canada announced on Friday that the jobless rate in July rose to 6.9 percent after 31,200 jobs were lost.

Full-time employment fell, while part-time work was up in the month, reported the government agency commissioned to provide statistics.

The latest labor force survey conducted by the agency shows the labor market shed 71,400 full-time positions in the month, while 40,200 part-time positions were created.

There were fewer youths, aged 15 to 24 years old, working mostly part-time jobs in July.

Ontario and Newfoundland provinces shed 36,000 and 5,000 positions respectively, while British Columbia, with the nation's lowest regional unemployment rate, and New Brunswick experiencing an uptick in job creation.

Overall, fewer Canadians were employed in public administration, while the number of healthcare and social assistance jobs increased.

The public sector shed jobs, while there was little change among private sector and self-employed workers.

Statistic Canada, however, cautioned that the July data was incomplete, because it had not received data from the Fort McMurray, Alberta region, which saw sweeping shutdowns of oil operations due to devastating wildfires since the disaster began in May.

Analysts say Canada’s economy is in challenging times.

The jobs report “obviously reinforces the point that the Canadian economy is struggling to make any headway,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at the BMO Capital Markets. “We're seeing next to no job growth on a year-over-year basis.”

Along with Canada's disappointing unemployment figures, Statistics Canada also released unsatisfactory figures that showed the country’s merchandise trade deficit with the world grew to a record USD 3.6 billion in June.

The numbers show that Canadian exports dropped 4.7 percent in the second quarter to USD 124 billion.

As a result, Canada’s quarterly trade deficit expanded to a record USD 10.7 billion in the second quarter, up from USD 6.4 billion in the first quarter.

The plunge in exports is the largest drop since the second quarter of 2009 during the Great Recession, which was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s.


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