OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadas economy added 93,000 jobs in June, pushing the unemployment rate down 0.2 percent to 7.9 percent, Statistics Canada announced Friday. The job creation figure significantly exceeded analysts expectation that 15,000 new jobs would be created in the month, and is likely to pressure Canadas central bank to continue raising interest rates from their current historic low. Employment has been on an upward trend since July 2009, increasing by 403,000 or 2.4 percent over the past year, Statistics Canada said. These gains offset nearly all the employment losses observed during the labor market downturn which began in the fall of 2008, the government agency noted. The June national unemployment rate, however, remained well above the October 2008 level of 6.8 percent as many more people entered the labor force over the past two years in search of jobs. Canada saw employment increases last month in retail and wholesale trade, business, building, health care and social assistance, automotive repair and personal care services. Virtually all of Junes employment gains were in the provinces of Ontario, which added 60,000 new jobs, and in Quebec, which saw an additional 30,000 jobs. The private sector continued to hire in the month and the number of self-employed also increased, but there was little change in public sector employment. The average hourly wage for employees was up 1.7 percent compared to the same month last year.