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Montreal’s unemployment rate reached its lowest level in over a decade in July, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

The unemployment rate was 6.1 per cent in the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area on a single-month basis, down from 6.6 per cent in June and 7.8 per cent in July 2016.

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“There have been 124,000 jobs created in Quebec over the past 12 months, 115,000 of that 124,000 have been in the Greater Montreal region,” said Stéfane Marion, National Bank’s chief economist. “That compares to 44,000 in Toronto and 37,000 in Greater Vancouver, so clearly we’re having a fantastic year for Quebec, driven by the Montreal region.”

Montreal’s unemployment rate has been lower than Toronto’s for nine of the past 10 months.

The growth is changing Montreal’s place in the Quebec economy, Marion said.

“Montreal has not been pulling its own weight in recent years, but over the past 18 months or so, the Greater Montreal region has been the economic engine of the Quebec economy, as it should be,” he said.

There are now more people working in the Greater Montreal region than in all the rest of Quebec.

“Montreal is the locomotive,” said Pierre Desrochers, the chair of the city council’s executive committee. “Montreal has to assume that role, and we’re doing it. When you look at those results, it’s a clear indication that the development of the province goes through Montreal.”