Canada’s unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points in July to 7.2% as fewer people entered the labour market in search of work, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.

Employment was little changed during the month, adding 9,000 jobs.

Analysts had expected and increase of at least 30,000 jobs.

A gain of 48,000 part-time jobs was mostly offset by the loss of 39,000 full-time jobs.

The monthly gain in part-time employment is the first significant increase in 2004, according StatsCan.

The decline in full-time employment in July snapped a string of 10 consecutive monthly gains totalling 342,000 jobs dating back to last August.

There was some good news in the July report, however. Employment in the manufacturing sector jumped by 21,000 in July, the first significant increase in more than a year. The gain was concentrated in Ontario.

Construction employment was up 19,000 last month, while the professional, scientific and technical services sector added 18,000 positions.

Employment in health care and social assistance declined by an estimated 24,000 in July, mostly in hospitals. However, employment in the sector was up 2.7 – roughly 46,000 jobs – from a year ago.

“The knee-jerk reaction to this report will be to read it as weak, but there are enough solid results here to count it as neutral,” said Sherry Cooper, chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., in a statement.

Cooper drew attention to the solid gain in manufacturing payrolls, and strength in private sector jobs.

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040806/d040806a.htm