The Canada December jobs statistics show:
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Employment change: 8.2 K vs -5.0K estimate, +53.6K prior
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Unemployment rate: 6.8% vs 6.6% estimate, 6.5% prior
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Full-time employment change: 50.2K vs -9.4k last month
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Part-time employment change: -42.0K vs 63.0K last momth
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Participation rate: 65.4% vs 65.1% last month
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Avg hourly wages (permanent, YoY): 3.7% vs 4.0% last month
Highlights:
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Employment was essentially flat in December, rising by 8,200 (0.0%), after three strong monthly gains from September through November.
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The employment rate —the percentage of the population aged 15 years and older who are employed—held steady at 60.9%.
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Full-time employment increased by 50,000 (+0.3%), while part-time employment fell by 42,000 (-1.1%), partially reversing gains from October and November.
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Over the past 12 months, part-time employment grew faster (+2.6%) than full-time employment (+0.7%).
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Private sector, public sector, and self-employment levels showed little change in December.
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The unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 6.8% in December, partially reversing declines from the prior two months.
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The number of unemployed increased to 1.6 million, up 73,000 (+4.9%) on the month.
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The participation rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 65.4%, reflecting more people entering or re-entering the labor force.
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On a year-over-year basis, the participation rate was unchanged.
This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.
