The Canadian labour market added 0.1k positions in December, with full-time employment down 23.5k and part-time employment up 23.6k.
The unemployment rate held steady at 5.8% and the participation rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 65.4%.
Employment by sector showed gains in professional, scientific and technical services (+46k), health care and social assistance (+16k), and other services (+12k). Declines were led by wholesale and retail trade (-21k) and manufacturing (-18K).
Lastly, total hours worked rose 0.4% month-on-month and wages were up 5.4% year-on-year (from 4.8% in November).
Key Implications
The Canadian jobs market ended 2023 with a shrug. The flat headline print occurred alongside diverging underlying details. Negative one month, positive the next was a theme of this report. Hours worked jumped higher after falling significantly last month, while job losses in manufacturing and construction occurred after big gains last month. Same goes for hiring of full-time and part-time workers. While this gives us little direction, some trends remained, with Canada’s working-age population having increased by 74k in December, the number of unemployed workers continued to rise, clocking in at +202k in 2023.
All told, today’s report does little to change the BoC’s thinking. The overall trend in the Canadian economy has been that of gradual weakness. The Canadian consumer has pulled back in the face of high interest rates and businesses have slowed the pace of hiring. With underlying inflation moving towards the BoC’s target, an April policy rate cut remains in view.
