Canada Paltry 200 Jobs in July Spurs Labor Market Exodus

Canada created 200 new jobs last month and the feeble state of the nation’s labor market provoked more job hunters to abandon the search.

Another 35,400 people dropped out of the labor market in July, cutting the participation rate to 65.9 percent, the lowest since October 2001, Statistics Canada said today from Ottawa. The shrinking workforce was the main factor in the unemployment rate’s decline to 7 percent from 7.1 percent. Economists predicted a 20,000 jobs increase and a 7.1 percent unemployment rate, according to median forecasts in a Bloomberg economist survey.