The Canadian economy churned out a better-than-expected 42,600 new jobs in November. But the jobless rate rose slightly as more people entered the labour force.
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Economists had expected only modest growth of 10,000 jobs.
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The rosy jobs report lit a fire under the Canadian dollar, as the market bet that future interest rate cuts would be less likely. The loonie was at 99.61 cents US at 7:45 a.m. ET, up more than half a cent from Thursday's close.
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The unemployment rate edged up to 5.9 per cent, a rise of a tenth of a percentage point from October's 33-year low.
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So far this year, the country has created 388,000 jobs, making this year's employment growth 2.3 per cent - stronger than last year's 1.8 per cent increase.
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Statistics Canada said most of the new job creation took place in the private sector, with growth concentrated in transportation and warehousing, business, building and other support services, educational services and natural resources.
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But the manufacturing sector continued to feel the effects of a strong dollar, as another 16,400 factory jobs disappeared. November was the month when the loonie reached a modern-day high of $1.10 US. Almost 100,000 factory jobs have vanished in the last year.
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British Columbia led all provinces in job growth, adding 25,800 new payroll positions, mainly in construction. Quebec added 18,600 jobs.
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Alberta again led all provinces with the lowest unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent. But the other western provinces weren't far behind - all had jobless rates of 4.2 per cent or less.
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The country's employment rate - the percentage of working-age people in the labour force - rose to another record high of 63.6 per cent.
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With a tight labour market, it isn't surprising that wage pressures continued to build in November, with the average hourly wage up 4.2 per cent year-over-year. That's well above the 2.4 per cent increase in the cost of living.
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"This doesn't change our view that the [Bank of Canada] will likely ease [interest rates] a couple of times in the new year," said BMO Capital Markets in a morning commentary.