Canada’s unemployment rate nudged up to 6.1% in April from 6% in March, as more people looked for work last month, Statistics Canada reported today.

Employers added 19,000 new positions in April, which was similar to March’s job growth.

As well, wage growth slowed from 4.7% to 4.3% year-over-year, its slowest pace since November 2007, reported the federal agency.

“Overall, today’s employment report really wasn’t quite as strong beneath the surface as the headline number would suggest,” wrote TD economics strategist Jacqui Douglas, in a morning commentary. “The slowdown in wage growth and the uptick in the unemployment rate, which is at its highest level since June 2007, suggest that the labour market may finally be building a bit of slack, and that the recent run in job growth has finally come to an end.”

All of April’s job growth was in self-employment and full-time work, StatsCan said.

In the wake of the jobs report, the Canadian dollar traded up 0.83 of a cent at US99.15¢.

Employment gains were seen in the accommodation and food services sectors, where 22,000 jobs were added, as well as in construction, which gained 16,000 jobs. Over the past 12 months, the construction industry led employment growth, adding 113,000 workers.

Manufacturing continued its decline in April, with losses in Ontario and British Columbia. The number of factory workers has decreased by 112,000 since April 2007, StatsCan said.

While small employment increases were seen across most of the country, Manitoba was the only province with strong growth in April, as about 9,000 jobs were adding, pushing the province’s unemployment rate down 0.5 of a percentage point to 3.8%.

Quebec was the only province to experience a loss for the month. The province lost an estimated 20,000 jobs in April, mostly among youths. That pushed Quebec’s unemployment rate up 0.3 percentage points to 7.6%. StatsCan called it the first significant employment decline in two years in the province.

“While the latest climb in Canadian employment sports the odd blemish—a higher jobless rate, weakness in private sector jobs—the main point is that job growth continues to churn ahead even in the face of a U.S. recessionette,” concluded Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. “The Canadian results are consistent with slower growth, but are still a long, long way from anything close to a serious downturn.”