Canada – According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), employment in December jumped 54K, easily topping consensus which was looking for a decline.
Despite those massive gains, the jobless rate increased one tick to 6.9% because of the two-tick increase in the participation rate to 65.8%. The surge in December employment was entirely due to paid jobs (+72K) which dwarfed the 18K decline in selfemployment. Paid employment gains were split between the private sector (+44K) and government (+29K). The goods sector added just 2K jobs as gains in manufacturing, utilities and construction offset declines in agriculture and forestry. Services sector employment jumped 52K with strength in most sectors. Full-time employment soared 81K, while part-time employment was down 28K. But interestingly, hours worked fell 0.8%. The Labour Force Survey continues to surprise. December’s surge in employment was the fifth consecutive month of gains in Canada’s labour market. The strength in cyclical sectors such as construction and manufacturing points to resilience in the economy. Particularly encouraging is the further increase in employment for the 25-54 age group, a positive for household formation and hence a source of support for the housing market. For 2016 as a whole, LFS employment rose 214K or 18K/month, not spectacular (considering most were part-time) but a positive result nonetheless considering real GDP growth last year was a meagre 1.3% or so.
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