Canada economy shed 39,700 jobs for the third month in a row in August, completely in full-time work, Statistics Canada said on Friday.
The jobless rate mounted to 5.4%. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had predictable an increase of 15,000 jobs in August.
Employment in the goods producing sector fell by a net 13,900 jobs, mainly in construction. The services sector was down by a net 25,800 positions, frequently in educational services.
“I think this can be taken as a reasonable indication that the economy is, in fact, slowing,” said Andrew Kelvin, chief Canada planner at TD Securities.
“When you look at the increase in the unemployment rate, that does suggest that maybe a little bit of slack is starting to return to the labor market, though it’s not a complete process and it will be a slow process,” he added.
Canada has lost a net 113,500 jobs in the last three months. In June and July, the mainstream of those losses were attributed to people leaving the labor force, but that tendency reversed in August as 66,200 people joined the workforce.
Over those same three months, job losses were focused in educational services, an often instable segment throughout the summer months, and wholesale and retail trade. In August, construction jobs also fell sharply.
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Three conservative months of job losses “hasn’t historically happened outside of a recession,” said Royce Mendes, head of Macro Strategy at Desjardins Group, adding: “The deterioration in the job market appears to be occurring faster than anticipated.”