Canada Adds 45,300 Jobs in June, Unemployment Rate Falls to 6.5%

Canadian employment surged for a second-consecutive month in June and the unemployment rate fell, capping off the best quarter of job creation in seven years and setting the stage for a widely anticipated rate increase next week from the Bank of Canada.

The Canadian economy added a net 45,300 jobs in June, Statistics Canada said Friday, whereas market expectations were for a gain of 10,000 positions, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada. On a year-over-year basis, Canadian employment increased 350,800, or 1.9%, and that marks the fastest annual rise in job growth since February, 2013. Over two-thirds of the new jobs created over the past 12 months are of the full-time variety.

For the second quarter, Canadian employment rose 103,000, representing the biggest quarterly increase since 2010.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell in June to 6.5% from the previous month's 6.6% level. Using U.S. data concepts, Canada's jobless rate in June was 5.4%.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 07, 2017 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)