Canada: Unemployment Rate declines to 5% in December vs. 5.2% expected

• Employment in Canada rose at a stronger pace than expected in December.
• USD/CAD erased its daily gains and declined below 1.3550 after the data.

The data published by Statistics Canada revealed on Friday that the Unemployment Rate declined to 5% in December from 5.1% in November . This reading came in better than the market expectation of 5.2%.

Further details of the publication showed that the Net Change in Employment was +104K, much higher than analysts’ estimate of +8K.

 “Year-over-year growth in the average hourly wages of employees remained above 5% for a seventh consecutive month in December, up 5.1% (+$1.57 to $32.06) compared with December 2021 (not seasonally adjusted),” Statistics Canada noted in its publication. “Total hours worked were little changed on a monthly basis in December, and up 1.4% compared with 12 months earlier.”

Market reaction

USD/CAD declined sharply after the Canadian jobs report and was last seen losing 0.2% on the day 1.3540.