OTTAWA—The Canadian economy added 55,000 jobs in December before COVID-19 cases began spiking at the end of the month, Statistics Canada said Friday. The agency said in its labour force survey that the increase in the number of people working came as the unemployment rate edged down to 5.9 percent compared with 6.0 percent in November. It was the lowest unemployment rate since February 2020 before the pandemic when it was 5.7 percent. The report was based on survey results done during the week of Dec. 5 to 11, before the public health restrictions put in place to slow the latest surge in COVID-19 cases. The highly transmissible Omicron variant has fuelled a massive spike in COVID-19 cases and prompted a return to restrictions in many parts of the country that have forced many businesses to temporarily close or curtail operations. Stephen Brown, senior Canada economist at Capital Economics, said …