By Canadian Press

Canadian wage growth climbs to highest mark since 2009, but economy sheds jobs

Aug 9, 2019 | 5:52 AM

OTTAWA — Canada lost 24,200 jobs last month and its unemployment rate moved up to 5.7 per cent to give the economy its weakest three-month stretch of job creation since early 2018.

On the positive side, Statistics Canada says July’s wage growth came in strong at 4.5 per cent — which was its highest level in more than a decade.

The agency’s latest labour force survey found that job creation was nearly flat between May and July, a period that saw Canada add an average of 400 jobs per month.

The economy had a been on a healthy run of employment gains that began last summer.

Even with the July decline, compared to a year earlier, the numbers show Canada added a healthy dose of 353,000 new positions — almost all of which were full time.

Voter turnout

Political analysts expert higher than normal voter turnout

2h ago

2024 was a banner year for tourism

4h ago

Local BC Greens set out platform

4h ago

Year-over-year average hourly wage growth for all employees was 4.5 per cent in July, the indicator’s strongest month since January 2009.

The Canadian Press