OTTAWA (MaceNews) – Canada’s labor market continues to show a pattern of strong gains, adding 53,700 new jobs in September – and most of those were full-time positions.
During the same period, the national unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage points to 5.5% as the economy continues to create sustainable job opportunities.
Many forecasters had been bracing for a much weaker – but still healthy – 15,000 new Canadian positions in September. In August, the economy created 81,100 jobs.
“It wasn’t quite unanimously robust, though, as hours worked sagged 0.3% and the job gains were entirely in the public sector and/or self-employment,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.
“Still, the tighter labor market is pushing on wage pressures, with the average hourly wage re-accelerating to a 4.3% (on a year-over-year basis),” Porter noted.
“The big Canadian jobs machine just keeps chugging along, giving no sense that the economy is on the cusp of an imminent downturn.”
The majority of hiring activity was in Ontario, Canada’s largest province, with employment increasing by 41,000 last month. The Atlantic province of Nova Scotia also showed strong hiring gains, adding 3,200 positions in September.
“There were more people working in health care and social assistance, as well as in accommodation and food service,” Statistics Canada said Friday in its monthly employment survey.
The strong hiring data in September should keep interest rates steady for now. The Bank of Canada has so far maintained its trendsetting lending level at 1.75%, where it has since October 24, 2018.
Stephen Poloz, the BoC governor, and his policy team are still likely to keep their benchmark untouched for now as the economy appears to be remaining on a solid footing.
The central bank will post its next interest rate decision on October 30, a date that will also include the BoC’s quarterly Monetary Policy Report – a document that assesses domestic and global economic forecasts that are used to determine future growth and interest rate paths.
On the same day, the central bank governor and senior deputy governor will hold a news conference in Ottawa.