MNI BRIEF: Canada's Job Gains Slow To +31k in October

Canadian employment continued to move beyond pre-pandemic levels in October, though the gains slowed to 31,200 from September's 157,100 on weakness at hotels and restaurants, government figures showed Friday.

The job gain and some people leaving labor force were enough to lower unemployment for a fifth month, to 6.7% from 6.9%, the lowest since the pandemic began. Economists predicted 50,000 net new jobs and a 6.8% jobless rate. But there is still slack in the job market by some measures. The employment rate of 61.0% was 0.8pp lower than February 2020, and unemployment was below 6% in the years before the pandemic.

While supply bottlenecks have driven inflation to more than double the Bank of Canada's 2% target, wage inflation remains in line with the central bank's goal. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has scaled back most pandemic relief checks and said programs now extended to May will hopefully be the last round of payouts. Job gains have been instrumental in narrowing Canada's record budget deficits, though the Liberal government has no projections for balancing the books, a view shared by opposition parties that hold a a majority of seats in the House of Commons.