TORONTO (AP) — Canada's unemployment rate edged down one-tenth of a point to 7.0 percent last month, the lowest it's been since December 2008, even while shedding 21,900 jobs.
Statistics Canada reported Friday that a drop in the number of people seeking work pushed the unemployment rate down to a four-year low.
The brunt of jobs losses, mostly full-time, occurred in Ontario and British Columbia while Alberta and Saskatchewan showed modest gains.
Economists had expected a 5,000 gain in jobs nationally. Analysts had expected a correction in the labor market would come at some point, reasoning that the relatively healthy employment picture in Canada seemed out of step with an economy that had suffered through a rough patch in the last half of 2012.
