Canada’s economy added 104,000jobs in December as the unemployment rate fell slightly to 5.0 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday.
This marks the third decline in the unemployment rate in fourth months, edging it closer to the record low of 4.9 per cent reached in June and July.
In its latest labour force survey, the federal agency says the rise in employment was driven by an increase in full-time work.
The number was much higher than economists had forecast, “blowing way past consensus expectations for a paltry [5,000] gain,” Andrew Grantham, a senior economist at CIBC, said in a note.
The number of employees in the private sector increased last month, with job gains made across industries.
Meanwhile, employment in the public sector held steady.
Wages continued to grow at a year-over-year pace above 5.0 per cent for the seventh consecutive month, with wages up 5.1 per cent.
Similar to the previous month, December’s employment gain wasn’t reflected in working hours. That’s due to an increase in staff absenteeism due to illness, Grantham added.
“The strength in hiring therefore partly appears to be a reflection of companies having to retain more staff in order to obtain the same level of supply.”
The strong reading could mean that the Bank of Canada will issue another 25 basis point interest rate hike in January, Grantham said.
Labour market has been resilient
Wage growth, however, still lags behind the country’s inflation rate, which was 6.8 per cent in November.
Employment among youth aged 15 to 24 rose in December, fully recouping job losses experienced between July and September.
The jobs report also noted that the employment rate among women between the ages of 25 and 54 reached a record-high last month.
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The Bank of Canada has previously flagged the country’s tight labour market as a contributor to high inflation.
The central bank has raised interest rates aggressively in hopes of bringing down the pace of price growth and cooling the economy.
While economists expect unemployment to rise in response to higher borrowing costs, the labour market has remained resilient over recent months.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
