Canada: Healthy job market – RBC

Josh Nye, a senior analyst at RBC Economics, reviews the Canadian employment data released today. The data seem not to have affected USD/CAD after the pair raised early in the morning to 1.3312.

Key quotes

“Today's data suggest the labour market is far from grinding to a halt.”

“Job gains over the last six months averaged a healthy 20,000 and nearly all of that was full-time work.” 

“A low unemployment rate—now just 0.1 percentage point above its cycle low—also goes against the BoC's view that the economy is no longer close to full capacity.”

“Today's data reduce the urgency for the BoC to lower rates (market pricing for a cut pushed back from September to October) though we continue to think the door is open to a rate cut if the economy's rebound early this year proves underwhelming.”