canada shed 17000 jobs in may pushing up for the first time in several months the unemployment rate to 52 percent the national statistical agency said friday the net job losses came as a surprise after robust employment gains in recent months since last september about 400000 new jobs had been created after a long string of outsized gains in job growth hiring apparently hit a rough patch in may said desjardins analyst royce mendes according to statistics canada most of the job losses were fulltime and selfemployed there were fewer people employed in the month in business building and other support services 31000 as well in professional scientific and technical services 13000 the agency said employment however increased in manufacturing 13000 other services 11000 and utilities 4200 mendes commented that the total hours worked which fell 04 percent in may looked ugly and that the only decent reading for workers came in the wage numbers which are still running at an abovefive percent annual pace rbc assistant chief economist nathan janzen noted that more economic data is scheduled to be released before the next interest rate announcement in july the bank of canada after becoming in march the first major central to pause its recent aggressive monetary policy to fight inflation came off the sidelines this week to hike its key lending rate to 475 percent this followed several backtoback hikes started in june 2022 when interest rates were at a record low we continue to expect data releases to look softer as time goes on janzen said in a research note adding that it will probably take more downside surprises to upend plans for another rate hike in july