Canada's Labour Market Sheds Jobs, But Unemployment Rate Remains Steady

The Canadian economy shed 42,000 jobs in August, but the unemployment rate remained steady at 6.4 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

Economists were not alarmed by this development, noting that one month of soft data does not define the labour market.

Andrew Hencic, senior economist at TD Bank, said, 'Although disappointing, given the noisy nature of the data a step backwards is not a major surprise after a string of hot reports.'

The manufacturing industry was a surprise pocket of strength in August, gaining 22,000 jobs.

However, the public sector shed 20,000 positions for the third straight month, with business and building services being particularly hard hit.