The Canadian dollar strengthened against the greenback as Canada’s unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percent in January to 6.8 percent.
The Labour Force Survey, compiled by
Statistics Canada, showed a sizeable jump in the number of employed Canadians in January (+0.3%).
The only Canadian province that saw declines in the number of working Canadians was New Brunswick, with Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador reaping all the gains.
Key metrics for January:
Ontario: +29,000, 6.4% unemployment rate.
British Columbia: +11,000, 5.6% unemployment rate.
Nova Scotia: +4,200, 7.7% unemployment rate.
Newfoundland and Labrador: +2,200, 13.8% unemployment rate.
Quebec: 6.2% unemployment rate.
Alberta: +1,000, 8.8% unemployment rate.
New Brunswick: -3,000, 8.9% unemployment rate.
In January, most new jobs were created in the service sector (finance, insurance, real estate), “On the other hand, there were fewer people working in information, culture and recreation.,” says Statistics Canada.
The CAD jumped 0.44 percent against the U.S. dollar in the minutes following the announcement of the unemployment rate. At press time, the USD/CAD currency pair is trading down 0.58 percent at 1.3071:
CAD banknotes photo by
KMR Photography
