TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s economy gained a net 72,500 jobs in March, entirely in full-time work, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The jobless rate fell to a record low of 5.3%.
Employment in the goods producing sector grew by a net 30,600 jobs, mostly in construction.
Market reaction: CAD/
STORY:
Link: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220408/dq220408a-eng.htm
COMMENTARY
ANDREW GRANTHAM, SENIOR ECONOMIST, CIBC CAPITAL MARKETS
“We think there may be a little room for the unemployment rate to fall further, given that some areas of the country – oil-producing provinces for example – were clearly not at full employment before the pandemic struck.”
“Today’s figures may not be as dramatically strong as the prior month, but they are still solid enough to support calls for a 50 basis point hike from the Bank of Canada next week.”
ROYCE MENDES, DIRECTOR & HEAD OF MACRO STRATEGY AT DESJARDINS
“The solid pace of hiring reinforces our view that the Bank of Canada will act forcefully next week to quell inflationary pressures by both hiking rates 50 basis points and initiating its quantitative tightening program. Bond yields are pushing higher in the wake of the release as traders firm up bets on aggressive action from the central bank.”
JIMMY JEAN, CHIEF ECONOMIST AT DESJARDINS GROUP
“We have 93,000 jobs created in the full time. So that’s more than double what was expected. And remember, we are coming off a very strong month of February, we had 122,000 jobs created. So to follow up with another 93,000 jobs full time, that shows how just robust this market is. You have a two-tick decline in the unemployment rate 5.3%… We’re beyond full employment. We’re seeing the marking heating up, and that shows with the wage growth of 3.7%. That’s a four-tick acceleration there. So those details coming in are very robust. From our perspective, it fully supports the view we have for next week for the Bank of Canada to go ahead with a 50-basis-point rate hike, and to announce the beginning of the asset purchase unwind, the cutting of the balance sheet.”
DEREK HOLT, VICE PRESIDENT OF CAPITAL MARKETS ECONOMICS, SCOTIABANK
“To keep the job creation machine going is a strong plus -tighter labour markets, lower unemployment. The one fly in the ointment is wages. Month-over-month, seasonally adjusted annualized they dipped. So we’ve had a couple months of slightly softening wage growth but not a huge deal yet.”
“On balance I don’t think it is going to change anything for the Bank of Canada. I still expect (a hike of) 50 basis points next week.”
(Reporting by Fergal Smith and Steve Scherer; Eiditing by Denny Thomas)
