Canada added 21,000 jobs last month, pushing jobless rate down to 5.2%

Canada's economy gained 21,000 jobs even as the labour force shrank by the same amount, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

The jobless rate moved down two-tenths of a percentage point to 5.2 per cent, the data agency said. 

That happened because while the number of new jobs wasn't overly big, the uptick happened as more than 20,000 people left the labour force. That means they voluntarily chose to not look for work during the month.

Prior to September, the economy had lost jobs for three months in a row. Even with the gains in September, there are still 92,000 fewer people working now than there were in May.

More to come.