- Prior month 150K. In December jobs rose 69K
- Employment gain for February 21.8K vs 10.0K estimate
- unemployment rate 5.0% vs 5.1% expected
- full-time employment 31.1K vs 121.1K last month
- part-time employment -9.3K vs 28.9K last month
- Participation rate 65.7% versus 65.7% expected
- average hourly wages permanent employees 5.4% versus 4.5% last month
- The number of employees grew in the private sector (+39,000; +0.3%), while there was little change in public sector employment and in the number of self-employed.
- Total hours worked rose 0.6% in February and were up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis.
The numbers are stronger than expected (once again). The wage data was much higher than expected as well. The Bank of Canada signaled no change in rates this week.
The USDCAD has moved lower off the combination US and Canada jobs reports.
The US report shows another strong gain of 311K. Over the unemployment rate did tick higher to 3.6% from 3.4%, and average hourly earnings came at 0.2% versus 0.3%. It may be mixed but is still fairly strong.