SUDBURY -- Greater Sudbury's unemployment rate dipped slightly in July, falling to 9.2 per cent from 9.4 per cent in June, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

While that is up from the five per cent who were jobless at the same time in 2019, Sudbury is faring better during the economic uncertainly brought on by the pandemic than most major cities in Ontario.

Only the combined Ottawa-Gatineau rate of 9.1 per cent bested Sudbury among cities with more than 100,000 people in the province. Ontario as a whole reported a jobless rate of 12.4 per cent last month, StatsCan said.

A total of 76,700 people had jobs in July in Sudbury, out of a workforce of 84,400. That compares to 74,600 in June, out of a workforce of 82,200. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.2 per cent. The rate is a three-month, seasonally adjusted average.

Across the province, Ontario added 151,000 new jobs in July, but the majority of them were part-time positions.

After losing more than one million jobs in a three-month time span following the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario added about 378,000 jobs in June. In July, employment in the province grew by 2.2 per cent.

The Labour Force Survey released Friday, which used the week of July 12 to 18 as a sample, said that businesses and workplaces across Canada have continued to reopen after being shuttered due to COVID-19 restrictions. At the same time, the survey was conducted while much of the province was still in Stage 2 of Ontario’s economic reopening plan.