Canada’s jobs report came in far better than expected.
The latest data from Statistics Canada, released Friday, showed that the labor market added 48,300 jobs in January, compared with economists’ forecasts that Canada lost 10,000.
The unemployment rate ticked down to 6.8% from 6.9%, and the labor-force participation rate ticked up to 65.9% from 65.8%.
“Overall, recent employment data provide further evidence confirming the recovery in the economy from the oil price shock,” David Madani, the senior Canada economist at Capital Economics, wrote.
Still, it’s notable that many of these job gains are in part-time positions, which rose by 32,400. Full-time positions rose by 15,800.
Employment rose most among core-aged men and women - aka those of the ages 25 to 54. Other age brackets saw little change. With men ages 25 to 54 in particular, Statistics Canada notes that the employment increase in January - up by 30,000 - was the largest in over two years.
Most of the jobs added were in the services sector, including but not limited to finance and real estate (which, notably, come amid the ongoing housing boom). On the flip side, fewer people were working in information, culture, and recreation.
Looking forward, "the next big challenge might be Trump's protectionist threats which, if acted on, would be very negative for Canada's small open economy," Madani added, referring to US President Donald Trump. "Outside of that, we also still worry about worsening housing imbalances eventually torpedoing the economy."
The Canadian dollar jumped after the data crossed. The loonie was up by 0.5% at 1.3075 per US dollar as of 8:32 a.m. ET after earlier being little changed for the day.
