A strong Canadian loonie continued its climb Friday, surpassing 95 cents US on news that 35,000 new jobs were created last month.

The dollar closed at 95.33 US, jumping 0.70 of a cent from the previous day's close.

"Any lingering doubts about next week's interest rate decision by the Bank of Canada were washed away today," Douglas Porter, a senior economist with BMO Capital Markets, told The Canadian Press.

"This one is clear-cut: the labour market remains drum tight. Against this backdrop, the Bank of Canada appears fully primed to hike rates next week and is likely to follow with another move in September."

The Canadian dollar was trading at 95.35 cents US by midmorning -- a gain of .72 of a cent over Thursday's closing, which was in itself a 30-year high of 94.63 cents.

The dollar's rise was driven by news that Canadian employers exceeded growth forecasts last month, creating 34,800 jobs in June -- double the number that had been predicted.

The job growth was driven by a surge in new full-time retail positions, as well as growth in the building and education sectors, Statistics Canada announced Friday.

And 12,000 new jobs were created through self-employment in June, though the manufacturing industry continued to see a decline with a loss of 31,000 jobs -- half of which were in Ontario.

Most of the new positions were full-time, and adult women were most likely to be able to find work. However, part-time employment numbers fell.

Despite the gains in June, however, the nation's jobless rate remained steady for the fifth straight month at 6.1 per cent -- a 33-year low -- as more people entered the labour force and began searching for work.

The increase in jobs in Canada came after April and May showed little growth, and brings overall gains for the first half of 2007 to 197,000 jobs, or 1.2 per cent.

Those numbers reflect similar growth in the same period last year.

Across the country, the employment numbers were varied. In Quebec, Alberta and New Brunswick more people were working in the month of June.

During the first half of 2007, New Brunswick, Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba all showed employment growth above the national average of 1.2 per cent.

  • New Brunswick had 3.1 per cent growth

  • Alberta had 2.5 per cent growth

  • B.C. had 1.9 per cent growth

  • Quebec had 1.8 per cent growth

  • Manitoba had 1.6 per cent growth

Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan, by contrast, showed employment declines over the first half of the year.

Ontario, which accounts for nearly 40 per cent of total employment in Canada, had employment growth of just 0.4 per cent over the past six months.