Canadian employment rose above expectations in September. Canada created 53.7k jobs, as compared with the median consensus expectations of 7.5k. The six month employment trend now stands at a strong 40.4k clip. The jobless rate dropped to 5.5 percent from 5.7 percent, slightly above its modern historical low of 5.4 percent hit in May 2019.
All of the jobs created were full time, while part-time dropped 16.3k. Public sector jobs rose 32.6k, while private sector jobs dropped 21k. Self-employment made up the rest, rising 42.1k in the month.
Industry wise, this was again a case of solid service-producing employment. Most of that was in healthcare and accommodation and food services. This was countered by a 36.7k fall in information. In terms of provincial highlights, the jobless rate was down in all of the Atlantic provinces and dropped to 5.3 percent in Ontario. In Alberta the jobless rate dropped to 6.6 percent, while in B.C. it fell back below 5 percent, hitting 4.8 percent. On the contrary, the jobless rate rose in Quebec to 4.8 percent.
Meanwhile, wage growth accelerated to 4.3 percent year-on-year, while hours worked rose to 1.3 percent from 1.2 percent in August.
“While the cloud of global uncertainty continues to hang over the outlook, it is getting harder to ignore the signal coming from the Canadian labour market. Ongoing healthy growth, with a wide dispersion across regions, alongside accelerating wage gains should give pause to expectations for the Bank of Canada to follow its peers in reducing interest rates. If anything, this puts the central bank back in wait and see mode”, said TD Economics in a research report.
