Canada: Employment plunging in November – NFB

Matthieu Arseneau, analyst at the National Bank of Canada points out that the Canadian employment report released today showed the worst employment pullback since the recession in November. 

Key Quotes:

“Canada’s employment plunged in November (-71K) according to the Labour Force Survey, way below consensus expectations calling for a 10K rise. As a result, the jobless rose four ticks to 5.9% (the highest in 15 months) with the participation rate dropping one tick to 65.6%.”

“The LFS employment report was way below consensus expectations in November registering its worst monthly print since the 2008-2009 recession. Our own expectations were quite low as November was one of the coldest on record and some election employees saw their contracts coming to an end. That said, the magnitude of the decline caused by a deterioration in the private sector is surprising, especially since it occurs at a time where global uncertainties had somewhat faded. We would have been more worried if such a drop had not followed such an outstanding run earlier this year.”

“Despite this drop, 285K jobs have been created this year, the second best performance in the 10 year expansion with no less than 86% of those jobs being fulltime.”