The Canadian job market gained 58.2 jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 7.3%. Expectations were for a gain of around 10K jobs and a rise in the unemployment rate to 7.3%.
The surprising leap in jobs for a second month in a row sent USD/CAD below parity, as low as 0.9987, before it climbed once again. The battle continues, but the data is good enough to keep the pair down.
The vast majority of the job gains comes from full time jobs – a positive sign. Also the participation rate edged up to 66.8%. This is 3% more than the US, and another positive sign.
USD/CAD traded at 1.0040 before the publication, near the high end of this week’s trading. The pair rose to parity and struggled around that point during a week that saw the greenback surging across the board.
Last month, Canada reported outstanding employment numbers: a gain of 82.3K jobs – a huge rise when a more normal gain of 11.3K was predicted. The unemployment rate fell from 7.4% to 7.2%, beating expectations for a rise to 7.5%.
For more on the loonie, see the Canadian dollar forecast.
In the US, PPI dropped by 0.2%, falling below expectations for no change. Core PPI rose by 0.2% as expected. The CPI figures are awaited.
Canada enjoyed higher oil prices recently and a moderately improving US economy.
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