OTTAWA — The Canadian labour market lost 31,200 net jobs last month as the country suffered its biggest one-month drop in full-time work in nearly five years, Statistics Canada said Friday.
The agency's latest labour force survey says the market shed 71,400 full-time positions in July — a number partly offset by an increase of 40,200 in less-desirable, part-time jobs.
The report says full-time work in Canada hasn't suffered a one-month blow this big since losing 80,300 positions in October 2011.
The changes helped push the national unemployment rate in July up to 6.9 per cent, from 6.8 per cent the previous month.
The survey also says paid employee positions fell by 28,400 last month. Self-employed work, which is often considered more precarious, declined by 2,700.
A consensus of economists had predicted the country to add 10,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to move up to 6.9 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters.
The survey said the service sectors lost 26,900 jobs last month and goods-producing industries dropped by 4,300 positions.
Ontario suffered the biggest job losses of any province in July, as its labour market decreased by 36,100 net positions. The data said 18,900 of those jobs were full time.
British Columbia added 12,100 net new positions last month, but the province still lost 21,800 full-time jobs.
Overall, the Canadian labour market had 0.4 per cent more jobs than 12 months earlier. Over that same period, however, the full-time work dropped 0.2 per cent while part-time jobs climbed 3.1 per cent.
The youth employment category — covering workers aged 15 to 24 years old — lost 28,400 jobs in July. The change pushed up the jobless rate for youth to 13.3 per cent, from 13 per cent the previous month.
Statistics Canada also released fresh figures Friday that showed the country's merchandise trade deficit with the world grew to a record $3.6 billion in June.
The numbers show that Canadian exports dropped 4.7 per cent in the second quarter to $124 billion, the largest drop since the second quarter of 2009 —during the Great Recession.
As a result, Canada's quarterly trade deficit expanded to a record $10.7 billion in the second quarter, up from $6.4 billion in the first quarter.
