The economy added more jobs than expected in December, helping push Canada’s jobless rate back down to a 30-year low of 6.1%, Statistics Canada reported today.

November’s unemployment rate was 6.3%.

Economists had been looking for job creation last month of between 10,000 and 15,000 positions. However, StatsCan said 62,000 jobs were created.

December’s employment increase included 37,000 full-time jobs and 25,000 part-time jobs.

Overall for 2006, employment grew by 345,000 jobs, or just over two%, in 2006, the highest growth rate since 2002. This was the 14th consecutive year of employment increases in Canada.

In Ontario, employment increased by an estimated 42,000 in December, with part-time jobs making up almost two-thirds of the increase.

In Alberta, employment growth paused in December after months of red-hot expansion, but the province still led the country with the lowest provincial jobless rate of 3.4%.

For all of 2006, Alberta’s employment rose by six%, or roughly 109,000 jobs, the largest rate of growth for the province since 1980.

“Although Alberta represents only 10% of working-age Canadians, it accounted for almost one-third of all employment growth in 2006,” Statistics Canada said.

The job growth helped give a boost to workers’ earnings. Statistics Canada said average hourly wages stood at an estimated $20 in December, an increase of 2.6% from 12 months ago.