Economists will be happy to know that Statistics Canada’s jobs report on Friday showed the Canadian economy added 91,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 6.7 per cent. It came as a surprise.
Employment growth is more than three times higher than expected, with experts predicting an average of 25,000 jobs added in the final month of 2024.
Last month’s unemployment rate was 6.8%, with employment increasing by 51,000.
Most of the jobs added in December were full-time positions, led by gains in education services, health and social assistance, finance, and transportation.
Public sector employment increased by 40,000 people, while private sector growth remained largely unchanged, adding 27,000 jobs. The number of self-employed people rose by 24,000, the first increase since February.
Average hourly wages rose 3.8% ($1.32, $35.77 per hour) year-on-year, the slowest growth since May 2022.
CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham said in a note to clients: “Today’s report was clearly better than expected, although unemployment remains elevated, suggesting economic slack.” .
“We still believe further interest rate cuts are needed to fully eliminate excess capacity.”
Statistics Canada also highlighted the trade relationship between Canada and the U.S. in its monthly report, noting that 8.8 per cent of workers are employed in industries that rely heavily on U.S. demand for Canadian exports.
Most of those jobs are in Alberta, with the majority in industries such as oil and gas extraction, pipeline transportation, primary metal manufacturing, and transportation equipment manufacturing.
