While one month of data isn’t enough to establish a trend, July’s employment numbers from Statistics Canada suggest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “sunny ways” will be some time in coming.

Against an expected increase of 10,000 jobs predicted by economists, Canada lost 31,000 positions in July, the worst monthly job loss in almost five years.

Seventy-one thousand full-time jobs were lost in July compared to an increase of 40,000 part-time positions, in a month which saw Canada’s unemployment rate increase to 6.9% from 6.8%.

Ontario, where just last month Premier Kathleen Wynne had boasted about a booming provincial economy, took the biggest hit, losing 36,000 jobs, its worst performance in almost two years, although the unemployment rate stayed at 6.4% since fewer people were looking for work.

In Alberta, hard hit by the collapse of oil prices, the unemployment rate jumped from 7.9% in June to 8.6% in July — its highest rate since September, 1994 — because while the number of jobs remained relatively steady, more people were looking for work.

While Trudeau’s government will argue that with Canada still in the economic doldrums it’s important to keep stimulating the economy with massive infusions of public spending for infrastructure, the current combination of high deficits and job losses is alarming.

During last year’s federal election, Trudeau promised three years of “modest” deficits — $9.9 billion in 2016-17, $9.5 billion in 2017-18, $5.7 billion in 2018-2019 — followed by a surplus of $1 billion in 2019-2020.

However in Trudeau’s first budget in March, Trudeau abandoned all those election commitments, almost tripling his projected 2016-17 deficit to $29.4 billion, followed by $29 billion in 2017-18, and $22.8 billion in 2018-19.

Contrary to Trudeau’s election pledge of a $1 billion surplus in 2019-20, he’s now projecting a $17.7 billion deficit in that year followed by a $14.3 billion deficit in 2020-21, with no balanced budgets in sight.

While these numbers are no doubt artificially high — so the government can claim sound economic management when the actual figures come in somewhat lower — they’re still alarming.

And a further indication Trudeau’s “sunny ways” are still a long way off.