Canada’s labour market topped expectations in June amid a surprise surge in hiring.
Statistics Canada said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a percentage point to 6.9 percent in June as the economy added some 83,000 jobs.
The vast majority of those jobs were part-time, the agency said, with 47,000 positions added in the private sector.
A Reuters poll of economists heading into Friday’s release had expected the jobless rate would rise to 7.1 percent in June as employment levels held flat.
The June figures buck the recent slowdown in the labour market. Last month was the first significant job gain since January and snapped a streak of three consecutive months where the unemployment rate rose….