Boom!!

Canada’s job report showed a massive increase in new jobs for September 2023. A whopping 63,800 new jobs were created for the month, blowing away expectations for 20,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.50%.

While on the surface it looks great, a little bit of a deeper dive shows some troubling data. 75% of all the jobs created were part time, and the finance, real estate, banking, IT and construction industries lost 50,000 jobs in September. All of the increase in employment came from Education + 66,000, and transportation + 19,000.

While jobs were created, the good paying jobs got lost, and the government ( education ) was responsible for the majority of the new jobs.

Lets call this a neutral jobs report. Could have been a lot better, could have been a lot worse, so we trudge ahead for another month.

Contrast this with the US Employment report also out today that blew past expectations. With the US jobs numbers that came out today it looks like the US Fed will be forced to raise at least another 25 bps coming up, while Canada will have trouble raising rates. Look for a continuation of Canadian dollar weakness in the coming weeks and months.