CBJ — The month in June resulted in 31,800 new jobs being added but in spite of that large number it wasn’t enough to to offset the country’s unemployment rate from rising to 6%, due to more people actively seeking work.

The monthly labour force survey by Statistics Canada shows the jobless rate for June increased from 5.8% in May to break the 6% barrier for the first time since last October, when it was 6.2%.

The unemployment rate moved up last month despite the addition of new jobs because nearly 76,000 more people entered the workforce.

The nation added 9,100 full-time jobs in June and 22,700 part-time positions. The public sector gained 11,800 jobs and the private sector lost 2,000.

The goods-producing sector added 46,600 positions due to job-creation increases in construction, natural resources and manufacturing. Services sectors, meanwhile, lost 14,700 jobs mostly because of big decreases in accommodation and food services positions as well as wholesale and trade.

Ontario added 34,900 jobs for an increase of 0.5% compared with the previous month, while Saskatchewan posted its largest monthly gain in over six years with the creation of 8,300 positions, which represented 1.5% growth.

Canada’s national unemployment rate was 6.0% in June. Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):

• Newfoundland and Labrador per cent 15.5 (14.5)
• Prince Edward Island 8.9 (9.3)
• Nova Scotia 7.9 (7.2)
• New Brunswick 7.5 (7.3)
• Quebec 5.4 (5.3)
• Ontario 5.9 (5.7)
• Manitoba 6.1 (6.5)
• Saskatchewan 6.3 (6.8)
• Alberta 6.5 (6.2)
• British Columbia 5.2 (4.8)

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