The Loonie Hour #82
On this week's podcast, we discuss Canadian home listings, improving sales activity, and the ongoing banking crisis in the US.
In April, Canada experienced a stronger-than-expected job growth, indicating the resilience of the country's labor market, despite the central bank's anticipation of higher interest rates cooling the economy. The Canadian economy added 41k jobs versus economists' predictions of 20k.
The unemployment rate remained steady at 5%, slightly higher than the record low of 4.9% observed in June and July of the previous year.
The growth in employment was primarily driven by part-time jobs, which saw a notable increase of 1.3% in April, while full-time employment remained stable. The sectors of wholesale, retail trade, transportation, and warehousing led the employment gains.
The US added 253k jobs in April, surpassing expectations of 180k. While the headline payrolls increase was partly offset by downward revisions to previous months' data, the unemployment rate and wage growth figures indicated a tight labor market. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, compared to consensus forecasts of 3.6%. Hourly wage growth rose to 4.4%.
In April, there was sustained growth in employment across various sectors. Education lead the way with 77k. Professional and business services experienced a notable increase of 43k jobs versus an average monthly gain of 25k over the past six months. Within this sector, professional, scientific, and technical services contributed 45k jobs, while temporary help services declined by 23k jobs.
In April, the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI®) rose to 47.1, 0.8 higher than the previous month's reading of 46.3. This indicates a fifth consecutive month of contraction in the overall economy following a 30-month period of expansion. The New Orders Index, although still in contraction territory, improved to 45.7.
Click below to listen to this week’s episode!