Canada's Job Market Breaks Streak with Losses
The Canadian economy lost 42,000 jobs in August, according to Statistics Canada. This marks a break from the previous hot streak of adding jobs, but economists are not sounding alarm bells.
The unemployment rate held steady at 6.4% last month, which is seen as more important than the headline job losses. Andrew Hencic, senior economist at TD Bank, noted that one month of soft data should not define the labour market.
The public sector shed 20,000 positions in August, while the manufacturing industry surprisingly gained 22,000 jobs. The latter may be due to companies racing to get products across the border before new US tariffs took effect on August 22.
Andrew Grantham, a senior economist at CIBC, cautioned that wage figures can be volatile and that recent movements might reflect earlier jobless rate changes rather than current labour market conditions. The annual increase in average hourly wages cooled to 2% in August, down from 3.3% in June.