Canada: Employment increased by 290K in May, Unemployment Rate edged higher to 13.7%
|- Employment in Canada unexpectedly increased by 290K in May.
- USD/CAD fell toward 1.3400 with the CAD gathering strength on upbeat data.
Employment in Canada rose by 290,000 in May, the data published by Statistics Canada showed on Friday. This reading surpassed the market expectation for a decline of 500,000 by a wide margin. Despite this increase, the Unemployment Rate climbed to 13.7% from 13% in April to mark the highest reading since 1976.
Key takeaways from the press release
"Three-quarters of the employment gains from April to May were in full-time work (+219,000 or +1.6%)."
"Compared with February, full-time employment was down 11.1% in May, while part-time work was down 27.6%."
"In February, prior to the COVID-19 economic shutdown, the unemployment rate was 5.6%. It increased to 7.8% in March and 13.0% in April."
"In May, unemployment grew more slowly (+201,000; +8.3%) than in the previous two months and there was little change in the number of people on temporary layoff."
Market reaction
The USD/CAD pair fell sharply on the upbeat data and was last seen trading at 1.3422, losing 0.55% on the day.
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