Investment Executive | Canada creates 59,000 jobs in November
Canada’s economy showed surprising bounce last month, churning out an impressive 59,300 jobs and dropping the unemployment rate two-tenths of a point to 7.2%.
The report from Statistics Canada on Friday was among the strongest of the year, not only in terms of job creation, but also in the type of jobs — almost all the gains were in full-time employment and in the private sector. As well, hours worked increased 0.2% in November.
Prior to the early morning release, markets and economists had looked for modest gains of about 10,000 workers, in line with a weak summer that produced the worst quarter for gross domestic product growth in over a year; the anemic 0.6% advance during the July-September period.
Instead, the month turned into the second most productive of the year on the job front, only bested by March’s outsized 82,000 jobs increase.
“The bottom line is the Canadian economy is not quite as weak as some of the recent indicators had suggested. It’s very encouraging,” said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist with the Bank of Montreal.
“On a stand-alone basis, this was one of the best job gains we’ve seen in the year and the unemployment rate has matched its cycle low. Even in the structure of the jobs, they’re mostly full-time, they’re mostly in the private sector.”