OTTAWA: Canada added 952,900 jobs in June on record service sector gains as more restaurants, stores and businesses reopened from COVID-19 closures, while the jobless rate was slightly worse-than-expected at 12.3%, data showed on Friday.

Canada has now regained some 1.2 million of the 3 million jobs lost from February to April as non-essential businesses across the country were shuttered to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Statistics Canada said.

Analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted a gain of 700,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 12%.

"It's a pleasant high-side surprise," Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. "It's a big step in the right direction."

The Canadian dollar was nearly unchanged after the jobs report at 1.3589 per US dollar, or 73.59 US cents.

Employment in the goods producing sector rose by 158,600, while the services sector gained a record 794,400 positions. Gains were split fairly evenly between 488,100 full-time and 464,800 part-time positions.

The June totals did not capture people who temporarily lost work due to COVID-19 closures and want to work, but are not currently looking for employment, Statscan said. Had those people been counted, the June unemployment rate would have been 16.3%.