Canada adds 75,000 jobs in July as unemployment rate ticks down

OTTAWA — Canada’s jobs numbers beat economists’ expectations in July, while the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in two years, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

The agency’s labour force survey said Canada added a surprising 75,000 jobs in July, blowing past expectations of economists in a Reuters poll, which predicted a modest 15,000-job gain. Those jobs were split between full- and part-time work.

Statistics Canada said the country is now up 181,000 jobs since April, and 196,000 from a year ago.

Canada’s unemployment rate ticked down 0.1 percentage points from June to 6.4 per cent. Statistics Canada said the unemployment rate is also down half a percentage point from a year ago as more people who are looking for work have been successful at finding jobs than this time last year.