Figures released Friday morning by Statistics Canada showed our economy unexpectedly added 53,700 new jobs in December, all of them full-time, while the unemployment rate edged up as more people sought work
Analysts had forecast no change in employment. StatsCan revealed the jobless rate rose to 6.9% from 6.8 percent in November.
The agency also reported that full-time employment, which had fallen in the previous two months, jumped by 81,300 jobs, the largest month-on-month gain since March 2012. Part-time employment dropped by 27,600.
In the 12 months to December, the number of people employed grew by 214,100, or 1.2%. The six-month average for employment growth was 28,000 jobs, up from 19,300 in November.
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