Canada’s economy shed 42,000 jobs in August, stalling the previously hot labour market.
However, Statistics Canada’s latest labour force survey says the unemployment rate held steady at 6.4 per cent last month.
August’s losses fall short of economists’ expectations for a gain of 15,000 positions and puts an end to a streak that saw 181,000 jobs added from April through July.
StatCan also reports the unemployment rate for the Belleville-Quinte West Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) which includes Belleville, Quinte West, Deseronto-Tyendinaga and Stirling-Rawdon, dropped significantly in August.
It was 5.4 per cent, down from July’s 6.7.
The Kingston CMA saw a slight decline to 5.5 per cent from 5.7 the month before.
Peterborough’s unemployment rate rose two-tenths to 7.0 per cent.
