According to analysts at the Royal Bank of Canada, as important as October’s GDP reading is for the Canadian economy, there’s even more riding on December’s jobs numbers following a November labour force report that was the worst in recent memory.
Key Quotes
“Recall that the Canadian economy shed 71,000 jobs in the month and the unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points (the largest increase in a decade). While it’s easy to discount a sizeable, one-month drop in the job count following a period of solid gains (employment growth still averaging a robust 26,000 per month in 2019), a jump in the usually more stable unemployment rate was an inauspicious surprise.”
“For December we expect a modest increase in employment and a tick lower in the unemployment rate. That would calm nerves about the state of Canada’s labour market heading into 2020. Further deterioration, though, would generate concerns that the economy’s shift to sub-trend growth is throwing Canada’s strong labour market into reverse.”
Share
