On
Friday, Canada released its jobs numbers that beat the consensus estimates. In
April, the country added more than 106,500 jobs, which was the biggest gain
since 1976 when the government started collecting the data. This number was
higher than the 19K that analysts were expecting. This job creation led the
unemployment rate to decline to 5.7%, from the previous 5.8%. The participation
rate rose to 65.7%.
In
the past three years, the economy has continued to create more jobs, even as
other sectors of the economy have lagged.
73K
of the jobs created in the country were full-time while 83K were in the private
sector. As such, the economy has created an average of 36K jobs every month in
the past one year. The tightening labour market led to an increase of the
average hourly earnings to 2.5%. This was higher than the 2.4% reported in
March.
The
jobs created in April were spread across the sectors. 32,400 jobs were in the
wholesale and retail trade sectors. The construction sector added 29,200 jobs.
66,400 part time positions created in the month were of people aged 15 to 24
years.
By
regions, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and Prince Edward Island saw net gains in
the month. In fact, most of the jobs added in the month were in Ontario.
These
jobs numbers came as the Canadian economy has struggled in the past few months.
In April, the building permits declined by more than 5.7% while the
manufacturing sales declined by 0.2%.In the same month, exports and imports
reported were lower than expected. In the first quarter, the GDP expanded by
1.1%, which was lower than the expected 1.4%.
The USD/CAD
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