Canada lost 84,000 jobs and the national unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent in February — 0.2 per centage points higher than the previous month, according to Statistics Canada.

The Labour Force Survey for February was released Friday, and comes after January’s report showed the unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent.

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Those job losses were sharply lower than expected and the agency said Friday that February saw more than 100,000 jobs lost in full-time work, while private sector employment fell by 73,000 positions.

A Reuters poll of economists heading into Friday’s release expected a slight rise in the unemployment rate but also called for a gain of 10,000 jobs last month.

The decline was led by youth aged 15 to 24 years old, with a drop of 47,000.

This comes as the trade war and U.S. tariffs continue to hammer Canada’s economy and job market, with businesses feeling uncertain about the long term mostly holding off on expansion and hiring plans.

– More to come

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