The jobless rate climbed 0.3 percentage points to 6.4% in July as the country shed 5,500 jobs and more people entered the labour force, Statistics Canada said today.

The job losses were unexpected. Analysts had been forecasting the economy would create 23,500 new jobs last month.

The job losses came entirely in part-time work; full-time jobs grew by 21,600.

Employment gains were noted in construction and in public administration.

Manufacturing was again a weak spot, as more than 33,000 factory jobs vanished, mainly in central Canada.

That brings total job losses in manufacturing since the end of 2002 to 224,000.

Alberta continued to enjoy a jobless rate of just 3.6%, the lowest in the country. So far this year, job growth in Alberta has risen at three times the national average.

Ontario’s jobless rate grew 0.6 percentage points to 6.5%. That figure was above the national average, which is territory Ontario usually manages to avoid.

The biggest increase came in Manitoba, where 7,000 job losses and more entrants into the work force combined to push the jobless rate up 1.1 percentage points. Even with that increase, however, that province’s unemployment rate remains low at 4.7%.

The highest unemployment rate continued to belong to Newfoundland and Labrador. Its jobless rate of 14.6% in July marked a slight decline from June’s 14.8%.

In response to the news, Canadian Labour Congress chief economist Andrew Jackson said: “Today’s numbers give clear grounds for concern that the job market is changing for the worse… While the jump in the unemployment rate is mainly caused by an increase in the number of job seekers, it certainly shows that we are a long way from full employment.”