The Target effect is denting Canada's jobs numbers.

Employers shed a total of 19,700 jobs last month, according to Statistics Canada, the most since August, as retailers eliminated thousands of sales, cashiers and clerks positions.

The numbers show the impact of a raft of store closings amid upheaval in the sector, including Target Canada, Best Buy, Mexx, Smart Set, Indigo Books and Sony. The sector may be in flux, but it remains the largest source of employment in the country.

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"Although some may think of retail trade workers as primarily casual employees or youths, we have to remember it is the largest industry in Canada at the moment, employing over two million people – mostly men and women between the ages of 25 and 54," said Andrew Fields, Statscan labour market analyst.

The retail sector posted a loss of 20,500 workers, Statscan said Friday, leaving employment levels flat from a year earlier. Monthly jobs numbers can be volatile, but separate payrolls data show the retail sector has contracted for four months in a row.

In January, Target said it was pulling out of Canada, an abrupt move that spelled job losses for 17,600 of its workers over the ensuing months and put pressure on hundreds of firms that served the chain, forcing some of them to lay off staff, too.

Across Canada, the jobless rate stayed at 6.8 per cent as fewer people looked for work.

Monthly numbers can swing up and down, but smoothed-out averages show employment has grown by just 2,600 jobs on average per month in the past half-year. Year-over-year employment growth has been stuck below 1 per cent for the past 13 months.

Other sectors shed workers as well last month, in construction and information services. Natural resources were little changed in the month, but are down 6.6 per cent from a year earlier, reflecting the oil price slide.

The outlook for hiring is soft, at least for the coming months.

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April's numbers "underscore our belief that job creation this year will be very weak," said Arlene Kish, senior principal economist at IHS Global Insight, who sees employment growth of less than 1 per cent this year.

The month's losses come as Canada's economy likely stalled in the first quarter of this year amid lower oil prices. Employment tends to be a lagging indicator, which suggests little likelihood of a hiring spree.

"The strength in employment in commodity-driven economies is unlikely to hold up through the rest of the year," noted Diana Petramala, economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. "Even as the economy accelerates through 2015, employment is likely to remain weak and the unemployment rate is expected to trek higher as the year unfolds."

The jobs market for young people remains tough. Unemployment for those aged 15 to 24 rose to 13.6 per cent from 13 per cent a month earlier. Employment levels are little changed from a year ago for this age group.

There are some signs of strength. Full-time employment rose last month and so did private-sector positions, economists observed. Wages firmed – to 2.3 per cent from a year earlier, from a 2-per-cent pace in March. And U.S. job growth accelerated, sending the unemployment rate to 5.4 per cent, a near seven-year low.

Alberta posted a surprise job gain in April, although its jobless rate is seen climbing (its rate has already risen to 5.5 per cent from 4.7 per cent at the end of last year). Fiscal tightening in the province "has yet to really hit, and some of the other sectors that will slow – office construction, for example – take a lot time for the impacts to take hold," said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets.

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Pressure in the resource sector will affect hiring in other industries, such as engineering services, he said. And, although public sector hiring has driven job growth in the past year, "it's hard to see that continuing, given that most provinces are in a restraint mode, including those that have lost energy revenues."