Canada's economy lost 6,600 jobs in September for the second time in three months, even though the unemployment rate edged down one-tenth of a point to 8 percent. Statistics Canada said Friday the unemployment rate fell because fewer workers, particularly young people, were actively looking for employment, according to AP. While the job losses last month were small, it appears to confirm the economy, which had once been churning out jobs at a rate of over 50,000 a month during the first half of the year, has ground to a halt. Statistics Canada said averaging the last three months, employment barely crawled forward by about 7,000 jobs a month on average, half of what analysts believe is needed just to keep up with population growth. «There is no denying the fact that employment conditions have cooled markedly from the piping hot pace seen as recently as the spring,» said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets. «Renewed solid job gains will be tough to come by in the months ahead amid the lackluster pace of underlying growth that has spilled over from the U.S. into Canada.» Statistics Canada said the key softness came in the part-time category, where 43,700 jobs were shed. Full-time employment saw a healthy pickup of 37,100. As well, hours worked rose slightly and payroll employment rose, offsetting a decline in self-employment. «With gains in actual hours worked and full-time positions registered in the month, the September report was somewhat better than that implied by the decline in the headline job count,» said TD Bank's Derek Burleton. Economists had been predicting a tepid jobs month, keeping with an economy that registered the first monthly contraction this summer in almost a year. But they were looking for a modest 10,000 increase, and the unemployment rate to stay put at 8.1 percent.
