The economy shed a net 17,300 jobs in May, entirely in full-time work, while the jobless rate inched up to 5.2%, Statistics Canada said.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast a net gain of 23,200 jobs and for the unemployment rate to edge up to 5.1% in May after staying at 5.0% since December.
A series of surprisingly strong economic data and stubbornly high inflation led the Bank of Canada to raise its overnight rate to a 22-year high of 4.75% on Wednesday.
"While this is an ugly set of jobs data, the labour force survey is notoriously volatile," said Royce Mendes, head of macro strategy at Desjardins Group.
Reports on jobs, inflation and gross domestic product are due out ahead of the next policy announcement on July 12.
Persons:
Andrew Grantham, Paul Beaudry, Beaudry, Royce Mendes, Ismail Shakil, Steve Scherer, Fergal Smith, Dale Smith, Susan Fenton, Nick Macfie, Jonathan Oatis
Organizations:
OTTAWA, Statistics, Reuters, Bank of Canada, Bank of, CIBC Capital Markets, Desjardins Group, Canadian, Thomson
Locations:
Canada, Statistics Canada, Bank of Canada, Ottawa, Toronto