By Promit Mukherjee

OTTAWA (Reuters) -The Canadian economy lost thousands of jobs in July, sending the share of people employed in the population to an eight-month low, data showed on Friday, as the labor market gave back substantial gains seen in the prior month.

The economy shed 40,800 jobs in the month, compared with a net addition of 83,000 jobs in June, taking the employment rate, or the percentage of people employed out of the total working-age population, to 60.7%, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

The loss of jobs was concentrated among permanent employees, StatsCan said. The unemployment rate however remained steady at a multi-year high of 6.9%.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the economy would add 13,500 jobs and the unemployment rate would tick up to 7%.

U.S. Presid

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