Canada's strong economic recovery slowed down last month as the nation slashed 139,000 full-time jobs, pushing the unemployment rate up for the first time this year.

Though a boost in part-time positions made up for some of the losses in full-time work, there was still a net deficit of 9,300 jobs in July, according to Statistics Canada's latest report.

The drop was enough to hike the national unemployment rate up one-tenth of a percentage point, to an even 8 per cent, the numbers released Friday show.

BNN's Michael Kane said the change is simply a correction after three months of consistent growth, including a 93,000-job boom in June.

"What I've been told by economists is we should be looking at an arc of at least three months, if not year-to-date," he told CTV News Channel on Friday morning.

"This being the first month of concerted net job loss this year, it's being looked at by economists as not being as bad as it looks on the surface."

Economists didn't expect to match the previous months' dramatic gains, but most foresaw a slight increase in jobs – far from the massive loss in high-quality, full-time jobs, Kane added.

It's unclear what triggered this drastic shift from what had been one of the top employment records worldwide since the recession, and one of the key engines of Canada's recovery.

The economy will likely wane overall in the second half of the year, said Ian Lee of the Sprott Business School at Carleton University. He said the housing market, which is winding down from a post-recession buying rush, is partly to blame for the change.

"But the other, bigger drag on the Canadian economy is the United States' continuing poor performance and what appears to be a declining poor performance – and that shows up in their numbers that came out today," he told CTV News Channel on Friday afternoon.

Employment numbers in the U.S. were troubling, with overall losses of 131,000 jobs and private sector gains of 71,000. The country's unemployment rate held steady at 9.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, the new numbers bring Canada's tally to 394,000 jobs created since last July – roughly 20,000 short of those lost in the recession.

The biggest drops in full-time work last month were in Quebec, which lost 65,800 positions, and Ontario, where 30,000 jobs were axed.

The education sector -- which includes teachers, assistants, administrators and custodial staff – was hard-hit, and there were setbacks in the finance, insurance, real estate and leasing services.

One of the few bright spots in the report was a rise in the manufacturing sector, which added 28,500 jobs.

"We've seen a couple of times this year that the manufacturing sector, which was beaten down so badly during the economic downturn, is starting to come back to life," Kane said. He said things were also looking up for auto workers.

Overall, net employment – which combines part-time and full-time work – rose in British Columbia and Alberta, but fell in Quebec and Ontario.

With files from The Canadian Press