MNI:Big Canada Hire Doesn't Curb Highest Jobless Rate In 9 Yrs

Canada added far more jobs than economists predicted in September while unemployment remained the highest since 2016 excluding the pandemic, mixed evidence of how firms are adjusting to the U.S. trade war.

Employment climbed by 60,400 positions from August while an MNI consensus predicted 5,000 positions in Statistics Canada's report Friday from Ottawa.

Full-time positions increased by 106,100, the most in more than two years, and part-time declined by 45,600. Manufacturing expanded by about 28,000 in September, with the first gain since January clawing back some of the cumulative decline of 58,000 earlier this year.

Unemployment remained at the highest since 2016 excluding the pandemic at 7.1% in September because the labor force grew faster than employment. That points to continuing slack in the economy that has led the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates several times this year, and economists predict another move over the next few meetings. The jobless rate was still slightly better than the economist forecast it would climb a tenth of a point in September.

Year-to-date hiring of about 22,000 is the slowest since 2009, around the time of a recession in Canada linked to the global financial crisis. Youth unemployment of about 15% is also the highest since 2010. 

The Bank of Canada mainly tracks the job market as an indicator of slack and has a single mandate to keep inflation at 2%. Assessing balance in the job market is clouded by the government's move to curb record immigration that pushed labor supply ahead of demand, partly because it's unclear exactly what will happen to population growth.