Article content

OTTAWA — Canada’s employment pattern of give and take continued in August, with a surprisingly big surge in hiring offsetting many of the losses in the previous month.

[np_storybar title=”Yet another thrill ride on Canada’s jobs report roller coaster” link=”http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/06/canada-job-growth-triples-forecasts-what-the-economists-say/”]Read what the economists say about the surprise surge in Canada’s job market

[/np_storybar]

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canada's jobs growth beats forecasts, jobless rate falls to 7.1% Back to video

There were 59,200 more people working overall in August, most of them in the private sector and mainly in part-time positions, Statistics Canada said Friday. That pushed the country’s jobless rate down to 7.1% from 7.2%.

The Canadian dollar strengthened to its firmest level in about two and a half weeks after Canadian data showed the economy added 59,200 jobs in August.

The currency touched 96.27 U.S. cents after the data, which more than half a cent stronger than just before the figures were released and more than a cent stronger than Thursday’s close at C$1.0506, or 95.18 U.S. cents.