Canadian unemployment up to 6.3 percent

OTTAWA, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Canada's unemployment rate rose 0.1 percent to 6.3 percent in November, representing 71,000 lost jobs, Statistics Canada reported from Ottawa Friday.

The province of Ontario was hardest hit with 66,000 jobs gone, 38,000 of them in the manufacturing sector, the agency said. Ontario's unemployment rate jumped to 7.1 percent in November from 6.5 percent in October.

Other national decreases were seen in the transportation/warehousing, educational services and agriculture sectors.

"Employment gained ground, however, in healthcare and social assistance and in professional, scientific and technical services," StatsCan said.

Since January, employment in the private sector has risen 0.9 percent compared with 0.8 percent in the public sector and 0.4 percent among self-employed workers.

In November, year-over-year growth in the average hourly wage was 4.6 percent, "well above" the most recent 2.6 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index, the report said.