Canada gained 10.9K jobs in July, slightly better than expected. The unemployment rate dropped surprisingly to 6.3%, but this comes on top of a drop in the participation rate to 65.7%. Full-time employment is up 35.1K while part-time employment dropped by 24.3K. This is a good composition. The unemployment rate is at the lowest level in the post-crisis world.
USD/CAD tops 1.26, but this is due to a favorable jobs report in the US.
Canada’s trade balance came out with a wide deficit of 3.6 billion, much worse than 1.3 billion originally expected.
Canadian was expected to report a gain of 10K jobs in July, a modest gain in comparison to 45.3K in June. The unemployment rate was predicted to remain at 6.5%. Canada enjoyed a winning streak of excellent jobs reports during 2017.
USD/CAD was trading around 1.2565 ahead of the publication. The US released its own jobs report at the same time.
Preview: USD/CAD: A ‘One-Off Level Shift’; Dual Employment Reports Key This Week
