New Brunswick lost about 2,800 full-time jobs in December along with about 200 part-time jobs.
Statistics Canada says that helped push the province’s unemployment rate up by half-a-percentage point to 8.4 percent last month.
While the jobless rate jumped to 6.3 percent in Saint John, it held steady in Moncton at 5.2 percent.
Across the country, the rate also remained steady at 5.6 percent.
Canada’s economy closed out 2018 with the addition of 9,300 new jobs.
For a second straight month, the jobless rate was at its lowest level since Statistics Canada started measuring similar data in 1976.
