Canada adds 90,400 jobs in April: StatCan labour survey
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Canadian employment recorded an unexpected upsurge in April with the addition of 90,400 jobs – more than four times the number of new jobs some economists had expected.
But with the population increasing, the unemployment rate held steady at 6.1 per cent, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
The job gains, the largest since January 2023, marked a reversal from March when the economy shed 2,200 jobs. But the average hourly wage growth for permanent employees declined to an annual rate of 4.8 per cent from five per cent in March. The wage growth rate is now the slowest in nearly a year.
The impact of the latest Labour Force Survey on the Bank of Canada’s upcoming interest-rate decisions was unclear. The boom in job growth for the month was impressive: Analysts surveyed by Reuters had predicted a gain of only 18,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to climb to 6.2 per cent. As a result of today’s report, money managers slightly reduced their predictions of a likely June interest rate cut to 48 per cent from 54 per cent.
At the same time, wage growth is an important element in the Bank of Canada’s assessment before its next rate-setting decision in June of whether the economy is meeting its expectations of slower growth and reduced inflationary forces.
CIBC executive director of economics Andrew Grantham said in a note to clients Friday morning that the April report was “certainly better than expected,” but the overall trend is still one of “loosening” in Canada’s once-tight labour market with signs of easing in wage pressures, CBC News reported.
The job gains arose from a mix of new part-time and full-time work and were concentrated in the services-producing industries, StatsCan said.
The Canadian dollar rose 0.3 per cent to $1.3640 to the U.S. dollar, or 73.31 U.S. cents.
