Canadian Dollar Rebounds After Disappointing 24K Lost Jobs

Canada’s economy shed a net 24,200 jobs in July, driven by a decline in wholesale and retail trade, official data showed on Friday, as Canada’s job market remained in a holding pattern for the third consecutive month.

Statistics Canada said the unemployment rate edged up to 5.7% from 5.5% in June as more people looked for work after hitting record lows earlier this year. Analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted a gain of 12,500 jobs and an unemployment rate of 5.5%.

“Clearly it’s on the disappointing side of expectations,” said BMO Chief Economist Doug Porter. “Of course, you can never read too much into any one month but this is the third setback in employment in the past five months.”

The Canadian dollar weakened to $1.3268, or 75.37 cents U.S., following the decline in jobs.

July saw the loss of 11,600 full-time jobs and 12,600 part-time positions. Employment declined for youth aged 15 to 24 and for women in the core working ages of 25 to 54 but increased for core working age men.

Via Reuters

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