- Prior was -32.6K
- Unemployment rate +6.9% vs. 6.8% expected
- Prior unemployment 6.7%.
- Full-time employment +31.5K vs -32.6K last month
- part-time employment -24.2K vs. +29.5k last month.
- Participation rate 65.3% vs 65.2% last month.
- Average hourly wages permanent employees 3.5% vs 3.5% y/ last month
- Unrounded unemployment 6.875% vs 6.715% prior
- Manufacturing employment -31K
- Total hours worked increased 0.4% in April and were up 0.9% compared with 12 months earlier
USD/CAD was at 1.3909 beforehand and little changed afterwards. This is a mixed report but I see more negatives than positives. The main positive was the rebound in full-time jobs but the negative was that unemployment rose to 6.9% from 6.7%, though some of that was from a tick up in participation. The unemployment rate matches the worst reading since 2021 and excluding the pandemic, it’s the worst since 2016.
Digging deeper in to the numbers, there was a 37K temporary boost to jobs for the election and that will be unwound in May. The Bank of Canada should take that into account and it sets up a poor number for the May report.
This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.
