Canada May employment change 26.7k vs 22.5k expected

• Prior 90.4k
• Unemployment rate 6.2% vs 6.2% expected
• Prior 6.1%
• Participation rate 65.4%
• Prior 65.4%
• Full-time employment -35.6k
• Prior 40.1k
• Part-time employment 62.4k
• Prior 50.3k

It’s a slight beat but nothing overly significant, with total employment being up by 0.1% (+27k) to 20,518,000 persons on the month. The jobless rate ticked higher as well and is now nearly up 1% compared to the same period last year.

Looking at the details, employment rose the most in healthcare and social assistance (+30k) as well as in finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (+29k). It fell the most in construction (-30k) as well as transportation and warehousing (-21k).

As for wages data, average hourly wages among employees increased by 5.1% year-on-year. That is seen up from the 4.7% reading in April.

It is a bit of a mixed bag with employment numbers meeting estimates and wages on the up. Meanwhile, the jobless rate is also still trending higher. The latter is perhaps what the BOC might look at to justify further rate cuts.

USD/CAD is trading up by 0.4% to 1.3730 now, owing much to a strong beat in the non-farm payrolls headline and stronger wages in the US as well.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.