Canadian economy sheds jobs in July

July was a bad month in terms of employment for Canada, with a loss of 55,000 jobs—the steepest drop since 1991. The manufacturing and industrial sectors were the ones most heavily affected. Quebec and Ontario respectively lost 29,700 and 19,000 jobs. Statistics Canada nevertheless noted a slight improvement, with the unemployment rate decreasing to 6.1% from 6.2% in June. This 0.1% drop is due to 74,000 older workers leaving the work force. Over the past 12 months, the country experienced positive job growth of 1.3%. In July 2008, there were 227,000 more jobs than the previous year.