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.