Canada’s economy stunned widespread expectations to post a massive job loss in September and the unemployment rate edged up, data showed on Friday, effectively wiping off all the gains in jobs that was seen this year.

The economy lost a net of 68,300 jobs in September after a loss of 41,700 positions in August, Statistics Canada said. It said the unemployment level inched up to 6.5 per cent.

While September was the first full month of employment report after a new set of tariffs from the United States hit Canada, the job losses were not significantly higher in U.S.-facing industries. On the contrary, the biggest drop came from public sector employees, data showed.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast jobs gains of 9,200 and predicted the employment rate at 6.5 per cent, up from 6.4 per cent in August.

With the September report, Canada has effectively lost a net of 41,200 jobs this year, as against a solid gain of 211,300 seen for the same period a year ago.