Release of the Canadian jobs data at 1:30 pm GMT triggered moves on the Canadian dollar market. Report turned out to be much better than expected with a big gain in employment. This led to a strengthening of CAD and a drop in USDCAD exchange rate.
Employment change: 150k vs +15k expected (+104.0k previously). Gains were driven primarily by people aged 25 to 54 (+100,000; +0.8%), split evenly between women and men in this group. Employment also increased among people aged 55 and older (+43,000, +1.0%), while it was little changed among youth aged 15 to 24. The largest employment increases were in Ontario (+63,000; +0.8%), Quebec (+47,000; +1.1%) and Alberta (+21,000; +0.9%). Employment declined in Newfoundland and Labrador (-2,300; -1.0%). There were gains across several industries, led by wholesale and retail trade (+59,000; +2.0%), health care and social assistance (+40,000; +1.5%) and educational services (+18,000; +1.3%). At the same time, employment declined in transportation and warehousing (-17,000; -1.7%). The number of employees grew in both the private (+115,000; +0.9%) and public (+32,000; +0.8%) sectors.
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Employment has been on upward trend since September. Source: Statistics Canada
Employment gains spread across several industries in January. Source: Statistics Canada
Unemployment rate: 5.0% vs 5.1% expected (5.0% previously) signaling that the Canadian labor market remains stubbornly tight. The total number of unemployed people stood at 1.0 million, similar to the level observed since the summer of 2022. Among people aged 25 to 54, the unemployment rate edged down (-0.1 percentage point to 4.1%), while it increased for people aged 55 and older (+0.2 percentage points to 4.5%) and was little changed for youth aged 15 to 24. 63.9% of unemployed people in January had been unemployed for a relatively short amount of time - between 1 and 13 weeks. Long-term unemployment was 15.8%, down from 19.9% in January 2022. Meanwhile, employment increased by 150,000 and the size of the labour force has continued to grow, as an additional 153,000 people joined the labour force, boosting the participation rate to 65.7%.
Full time employment :121.1K vs +84.5K prior
Part time employment: 28.9K vs +19.5K prior
Participation rate: 65.7% vs 65.0% prior
Avg hourly wages: 4.5% y/y vs +5.2% prior
USDCAD pair fell sharply an dis testing support at level at 1.3375. Source:xStation5
