Canada’s unemployment rate increased slightly to 6.4% in April as job growth slowed, Statistics Canada said today.

The rate rose a tenth of a percentage point from March, but still remained near 30-year lows.

StatsCan said 22,000 new jobs were added to the nation’s payrolls last month, significantly more than the 15,000 that economists had expected.

That brings the number of jobs created since the start of the year to 124,000.

Employment in the first four months of the year is growing by twice the rate of the same period last year.

Ontario led the country in job creation for the second straight month as the province added 24,000 jobs, mostly among adult women. Ontario has added 108,000 new jobs over the past 12 months as growth in service sector positions has outweighed losses in manufacturing.

Employment in Quebec fell by about 24,000 in April for the province’s first significant decline this year.

Job creation in Alberta and British Columbia was relatively flat last month after outpacing the rest of the country for the past 12 months.

The statistical agency said that strong full-time employment growth over the last year and an unemployment rate perched around its record low continue to push wages up. The average hourly wage in April was up 3.1% from April 2005.