Canadian employment likely to have remained unchanged in August, jobless rate to have risen to 5.9 pct

Canada’s employment data for the month of August is set to be released tomorrow. According to a TD Economics research report, employment is likely to have remained unchanged on pullback in the public sector. The public sector added 50k jobs in a total of 54k jobs created last month, and the regional concentration implies that the presence of a one-off that will unwind.

Public sector softness is expected to show up in the industry breakdown through education and health care, which combined to add 67 workers in July for the strongest rate of hiring on record. Private employment is expected to advance from a rebound in the goods sector after manufacturing and construction shed a total of 30k jobs in July.

“Our forecast is consistent with the unemployment rate rising to 5.9 percent while wage growth for permanent workers should edge lower to 2.9 percent y/y on base-effects”, added TD Economics.

At 19:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Canadian Dollar was neutral at 18.6438, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was highly bearish at -136.968. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex