Article content

OTTAWA — The Canadian labour market beat expectations last month by adding 45,300 positions.

Statistics Canada says the vast majority of the new jobs in June were in part-time work, although the number of full-time positions also increased.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canada adds more than 45,000 jobs as unemployment rate drops to 6.5% Back to video

The agency says the national unemployment rate edged down to 6.5 per cent.

A consensus of economists had expected an increase of 10,000 jobs in June and for the unemployment rate to stay at 6.6 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters.

The increase adds to a series of positive job-market gains since the middle of 2016 and comes amid widespread expectations that the Bank of Canada will hike its benchmark interest rate next week.

Compared to a year earlier, the agency says 350,800 more people were employed in Canada and that 248,200 of those new jobs were full time.