The Canadian economy added 75,000 new jobs in July pushing the unemployment rate down to 6.4 per cent, the lowest level in two years and the third consecutive monthly decrease.

The job gains covered a broad swath of industries, according to data from Statistics Canada published on Friday. Wholesale and retail trade recorded the largest employment increase in July, followed by the finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing industry. Employment also rose in the professional, scientific and technical services sector, as well as construction.

Total employment is up by 0.9 per cent or 181,000 jobs since April. This increase was driven by a rise in full-time work, which rose by 1.1 per cent or 193,000 positions. The unemployment rate has also fallen by 0.5 percentage points since April.

On a year-over-year basis, Canada’s unemployment rate was down 0.5 percentage points in July.

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Statistics Canada officials said a higher proportion of people searching for work have been finding jobs compared with this time last year, and the job-finding rate — the proportion of unemployed people who found a job between June and July this year — was 20.8 per cent. This was up from 18.5 per cent for the same time period last year, but still below the pre-pandemic average of 26.6 per cent for the same time period from 2017 to 2019.

More to come …

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