The Canadian economy lost 10,700 jobs last month. That was enough to nudge the unemployment rate up slightly to 6.6 per cent.

Statistics Canada says the contraction followed healthy increases in September and October totaling about 117,000 jobs.

Analysts had expected a modest gain of 5,000, but also anticipated seeing the unemployment rate edge up.

Year-over-year, Canada created 146,000 net new jobs as of last month.

Ontario lost nearly 34,000 positions, which pushed the provincial rate up half a point to seven per cent. But Toronto’s rate dropped a tenth of a point to 7.8 per cent.

The biggest winner last month was Quebec, where 19,600 net new jobs were added.