Canada: Employment better-than-expected – TDS

Employment growth was stronger than expected in February, with  all the new hiring concentrated in full-time positions. The BoC won't change the calculus around monetary policy despite strong jobs, in the opinion of strategists at TD Securities.

Key quotes

“The Canadian economy created 30k jobs in February, well above expectations for a more modest pace of job growth (TD: 12k, market: 11k) which is the third consecutive month that the LFS has beaten the market consensus. 

“We would fade the rising unemployment rate (5.6% from 5.5%) given the 0.1pp increase in the participation rate.” 

“Wage growth was another strong element to the report, with average hourly earnings for permanent employees holding in at 4.3% y/y (TD/market: 3.9%) on a 0.7% m/m increase, while hours-worked were even more impressive, rising 1.2% m/m.”