WASHINGTON?Canada's unemployment rate edged up to eight percent as the economy unexpectedly lost a total of 9,300 jobs in July, the government said Friday.

Some 139,000 full-time jobs were shed, partly offset by a gain of 129,700 part-time jobs, according to Statistics Canada as it raised the jobless rate from 7.9 percent.

It is the first month the Canadian economy is not creating jobs this year, a sign that economic growth is slowing down after surging since late 2009.

Most analysts had expected 15,000 more jobs to be created in July but employment declined in areas such as educational services, finance, insurance, real estate and leasing.

At the same time, there were job increases in manufacturing and public administration, Statistics Canada said.

The worst affected sector was education, with 65,000 jobs lost in July, followed by a decline of 30,000 jobs in the finance, insurance, real estate and leasing sectors.

Factory employment rose by 29,000, the largest increase for that sector in two years and returning manufacturing employment to its level of a year earlier.

Employment has been on an upward trend since July 2009, with the economy adding 93,000 jobs in June.

The Canadian central bank said last month it expected the country's economic growth to be 3.5 percent in 2010, 2.9 percent in 2011, and 2.2 percent in 2012.