The Canadian economy added 83,000 jobs in June, while unemployment fell by 0.1 percentage points, Statistics Canada said on Friday.
It’s the first time employment has increased substantially since January of this year, when the economy added 76,000 new jobs.
June also marked the first decrease in unemployment since January. The employment rate had previously declined by 0.3 percentage points between March and April, and held steady in May.
Over the long term, however, the unemployment data still paints a negative picture. Some 1.6 million people were still unemployed this month, and more than one in five people without jobs have been searching for work for 27 weeks or more — up 4.1 percentage points from last year.
More to come.