Employment held steady in May, following a strong increase in April. The unemployment rate went further down 0.3 percentage points to 5.4%. The unemployment rate in May was the lowest since comparable data became available in 1976.
Compared with May 2018, employment grew by 453,000 or 2.4%, reflecting gains in both full-time (+299,000) and part-time (+154,000) work.
There were 20,000 more people working in health care and social assistance in May, bringing year-over-year gains in this industry to 89,000 (+3.7%). Following little change in the previous three months, the number of self-employed workers rose by 62,000 in May, while the number of employees in the public and private sectors was little changed.
As reported on Marketpulse, the US dollar went down across the board against major pairs. The Canadian dollar rose on Friday as employment reports in both countries told different stories. The Canadian jobs data impressed by beating expectations with a 27,700 job gain.
The May employment report from the US shocked with a lower than expected number of new jobs. The US added 75,000 positions, short of the 180,000 that was forecasted credited to the negative effects of a prolonged trade war with China.
The recent miss by the US jobs report could force the hand of the Fed into making an interest rate cut. A summer cut could be on the table, unless US inflation and retail sales can turn the tide set in motion by the weak May jobs report.
🤝Over one million new jobs since 2015
📈A growing middle class
📉The lowest unemployment & poverty rates on record
✅And we’ll keep working hard to support you & your family pic.twitter.com/mQfDrGBfdW— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) June 11, 2019
Canada added 106,500 net jobs in April, and the bulk of them were full time, Statistics Canada said in its latest labour force survey. Employment grew 0.6 per cent in April — the highest proportional monthly expansion since 1994.
