Canada jobs change trends
- Prior month 0.1K
- employment change 37.3K vs 15K est.
- Unemployment rate 5.7% versus 5.9% expected
- Prior unemployment rate 5.8%
- Full time employment -11.6K vs -23.5K last month
- part-time employment 48.9K vs +23.6 last month
- Average hourly wages permanent employees 5.3% vs 5.7% last month.
- Participation rate 65.3% vs 65.4% last month
Highlights:
Employment gains were observed across various industries in the services-producing sector.
- The largest increases were in wholesale and retail trade, which added 31,000 jobs, representing a 1.1% growth.
- The finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing sector also saw significant gains, with 28,000 new jobs, translating to a 2.1% increase.
- On the downside, there were declines in certain industries, most notably in accommodation and food services, which lost 30,000 jobs, marking a 2.7% decrease.
- The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 5.7% in January 2024. This was the first decline in the unemployment rate since December 2022. The unemployment rate had been on an upward trend through most of 2023, rising from 5.1% in April to 5.8% in December.
Details of the sector job changes:
- In January, employment in wholesale and retail trade rose by 31,000 (+1.1%), marking the first increase since June 2023 after a downward trend from August to December 2023. Year-over-year, employment in this sector was largely unchanged in January 2024.
- Accommodation and food services saw a decrease in employment by 30,000 (-2.7%) in January, ending seven months of stability. Year-over-year employment in this sector remained relatively unchanged.
- The finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing sector experienced a rise in employment by 28,000 (+2.1%) in January, recovering from a cumulative decline of 56,000 (-4.0%) from July to November 2023.
- Employment also increased in educational services (+28,000; +1.8%), transportation and warehousing (+20,000; +1.9%), business, building, and other support services (+16,000; +2.4%), and public administration (+16,000; +1.3%) in January 2024.
- These gains were partially offset by employment declines in professional, scientific, and technical services (-17,000; -0.9%) and information, culture, and recreation (-13,000; -1.5%).
Stronger than expected but all the gains are in the part-time sector. Full-time jobs fell for the month after a -23.5K decline last month as well.
The USDCAD moved lower on the report, but has recovered about 1/2 of the declines. Technically, the price fell below and away from the 200 hour MA at 1.34524. The price has moved to a swing area between 1.3398 and 1.3414. It 38.2% retracement of the move-up from the December low is within that range at 1.3403. The 200 bar moving average of the 4-hour chart is just below that level 1.33994.
