Canada’s economy added 35,000 jobs in March, about three times more than expected.
Statistics Canada reported Thursday that despite the surge in hiring, the jobless rate held steady at five per cent because more people were looking for work, too.
Economists polled by Bloomberg had been expecting the economy to add about 12,000 jobs during the month.
Virtually all the new jobs were in the private sector, as the public sector and self-employment were both essentially flat.
Several industries saw hiring surges, especially service sector jobs like:
- Transportation and warehousing, which added 41,000 workers.
- Building and other support services, up 31,000.
- Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing added 19,000 people.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, these industries lost jobs during the month:
- Construction, down 19,000 workers.
- “Other services” (which includes personal and repair services) lost 11,000.
- Natural resources lost 11,000 jobs.
By province, Ontario added 21,000 jobs, Alberta added 14,000, Manitoba added 3,300 and Prince Edward Island added 1,700. Saskatchewan lost 4,300 jobs and there was little change in the other provinces.
The average hourly wage of a Canadian worker was $33.12 during the month. That’s an increase of 5.3 per cent from last year. That’s down from February’s annual pace of 5.4 per cent, but still above Canada’s 5.2 per cent inflation rate.
Wage gains have now outpaced the official inflation rate for two months in a row. That’s the first time that’s happened since the inflation rate started skyrocketing in late 2021.
Impact on interest rates
Royce Mendes, an economist with financial services conglomerate Desjardins, said the jobs number suggests the economy is doing better than some people had feared.
“The robust employment report suggests that economic momentum seen in January and February continued into March,” he said. Counterintuitively, a strong job market and rising wages won’t be seen as great news by the Bank of Canada, which has been trying to slow down runaway inflation by slowing down the economy.
But ultimately, Mendes says Thursday’s jobs numbers probably won’t be enough to compel the central bank to deviate from its stated plan to hit pause on rate hikes for a while.
“Bad news for the Bank of Canada was good news for Canadian workers in March,” he said.
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