Canada Employment: More modest gains in the coming months – NFB

Next Thursday, the Canadian employment report will be released. Analysts at National Bank of Canada expect a gain of 10,000 in jobs in March. 

Key quotes:

“In Canada, March’s Labour Force Survey will be watched closely. The job market has been extraordinarily strong recently, with headcounts expanding by 350,000 over the past 6 months. And while signs of an upcoming reversal remain few and far between, we think such a pace is unsustainable in the medium term.”

“We thus expect more modest gains in the coming months, starting with a +10K result in March. Despite this gain, and assuming that the participation rate remained unchanged at 65.7%, the unemployment rate could still increase by one tenth to 5.1%, the result of yet another sharp expansion of the labor force.”