Statistics Canada says the economy added 90-thousand jobs in August in the third consecutive monthly rise.
The unemployment rate fell to 7.1 per cent for the month, compared with 7.5 per cent in July, bringing the rate to the lowest level since the onset of the pandemic last year.
The agency says overall employment is within 156-thousand jobs, or 0.8 per cent, of the level recorded in February 2020 before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.