A sign that economic recovery remains elusive in this country.

Statistics Canada says the economy shed 39,400 jobs last month. And that was enough to push the unemployment rate up one-tenth of a point to 7.2 per cent.

The news will come as a surprise to investors and analysts alike. The concensus among economists was that we’d see a gain of 10,000 jobs. This makes it two straight months of job loses, although June saw a minor contraction of 400 positions.

Virtually all of the losses were in the public sector. Seventy-four thousand positions were cut in health care, social assistance and administration. The one good sign was that private employers added 31,400 jobs, but they weren’t enough to make up for losses in the public sector.