While Canada saw fairly strong job creation throughout the first half of 2011, the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey: November 2011 indicates that the more recent slowdown is continuing. This country lost 18,600 jobs last month, which is the third decline in the past four months. This brings the current unemployment rate to 7.4 percent.

These losses come as a disappointment to economists who had been predicting modest job growth for the month of November.

The news isn't all grim for Canadian workers however, full-time employment actually increased in November by 34,600 workers, but these were overshadowed by a loss of 53,300 part-time jobs.

Despite these recent losses, Canadian employment was up 1.2% or 212,000 jobs over this time last year.

Regionally:

Quebec was the province hardest hit by losses with 30,500 jobs disappearing. Saskatchewan also saw a distinct drop in employment, losing 4,200 jobs.

Ontario saw an increase of 16,600 jobs and Nova Scotia gained 4,400 in November. Employment in the other provinces remained flat last month.

By Industry:

Employment increased by 36,000 jobs in what Stats Can calls "other" services such as personal services and repair and maintenance. The construction industry saw 20,000 new jobs created. There were 10,000 new jobs in natural resources, and 8,000 more in utilities.

Retail and wholesale trade saw steep losses of 34,000 jobs in November, and business, building and other support services also took a hit with 29,000 jobs lost.