Live News: Canada’s labor market remains strong ahead of next week’s rate decision

Canada’s employment was little changed in November, but a small bump in job growth suggests the labor market remains strong, despite efforts by the Canadian central bank to cool the economy by increasing strong interest rates.

Canada’s economy added 10,100 jobs in November, according to Statistics Canada data released Friday. The figure beat economists’ expectations for a 5,000-job increase but fell below the 108,000-job gain in October, helping to reverse summer job losses and bring employment back to normal. recent peak in May.

The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 5.1%, below economists’ expectations of 5.3% and falling to near record lows of 4.9% in June and July.

The participation rate, which measures the number of people in the labor force who are working or actively looking for work, fell 0.1 percentage point to 64.8% in November, well below the recent high of 65.4% in February and March.

Job gains in November spread across industries, including finance, insurance, real estate, rental and rental, and manufacturing. However, employment fell in the construction, wholesale and retail sectors.

Average hourly wages for workers remained above 5% for six straight months in November, which could put pressure on the Bank of Canada as it tries to cool down wage increases to against inflation.

Central bank officials will meet on December 7 to make the final interest rate decision of the year. Low unemployment, high average hourly wages and a strong labor market could influence the bank to raise interest rates more aggressively at its next meeting to decelerate growth, despite the averages. argument in October from Tiff Macklem, the bank’s governor, that it was near the end its monetary tightening cycle.