The Canada December jobs statistics show:<\/p>\n
Employment change: 8.2 K vs -5.0K estimate, +53.6K prior<\/p>\n
Unemployment rate: 6.8% vs 6.6% estimate, 6.5% prior<\/p>\n
Full-time employment change: 50.2K vs -9.4k last month<\/p>\n
Part-time employment change: -42.0K vs 63.0K last momth<\/p>\n
Participation rate: 65.4% vs 65.1% last month<\/p>\n
Avg hourly wages (permanent, YoY): 3.7% vs 4.0% last month<\/p>\n
Highlights: <\/p>\n
Employment was essentially flat in December, rising by 8,200 (0.0%), after three strong monthly gains from September through November.<\/p>\n
The employment rate \u2014the percentage of the population aged 15 years and older who are employed\u2014held steady at 60.9%.<\/p>\n
Full-time employment increased by 50,000 (+0.3%), while part-time employment fell by 42,000 (-1.1%), partially reversing gains from October and November.<\/p>\n
Over the past 12 months, part-time employment grew faster (+2.6%) than full-time employment (+0.7%).<\/p>\n
Private sector, public sector, and self-employment levels showed little change in December.<\/p>\n
The unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 6.8% in December, partially reversing declines from the prior two months.<\/p>\n
The number of unemployed increased to 1.6 million, up 73,000 (+4.9%) on the month.<\/p>\n
The participation rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 65.4%, reflecting more people entering or re-entering the labor force.<\/p>\n
On a year-over-year basis, the participation rate was unchanged.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s December labour market report showed mixed but stabilizing conditions. Employment edged up by 8.2K, outperforming expectations for a decline, but marking a sharp slowdown after strong gains in prior months. The unemployment rate rose to 6.8%, slightly above estimates and up from November, largely reflecting an increase in labour force participation rather than renewed job losses. Full-time employment rebounded strongly (+50.2K) after a decline in November, while part-time employment fell (-42.0K), partially unwinding earlier gains. The participation rate increased to 65.4%, indicating more people entering or re-entering the labour market, while the employment rate held steady at 60.9%. Wage growth moderated to 3.7% YoY, down from 4.0% previously. Overall, the data suggest the labour market cooled at year-end but remains relatively resilient, with improving full-time job creation offset by higher unemployment driven by increased labour supply.<\/p>\n
Summary: 2025 labour market trend (Canada)<\/p>\n
The Canadian labour market faced headwinds through most of 2025, with hiring slowing amid economic and trade uncertainty, particularly related to U.S. tariffs.<\/p>\n
From January to August, employment was essentially flat, the employment rate declined, and the unemployment rate rose to a multi-year high of 7.1%, driven mainly by weaker hiring rather than layoffs.<\/p>\n
Job finding rates deteriorated early in the year, while layoff rates remained near historical norms, indicating softer labour demand rather than widespread job losses.<\/p>\n
Job vacancies declined, and employers reported less difficulty filling positions, pointing to a cooling labour market.<\/p>\n
Youth were disproportionately affected, with youth unemployment and student joblessness reaching their highest levels in more than a decade (excluding pandemic years).<\/p>\n
Conditions improved late in the year, with employment rebounding from August to November and the employment rate recovering to 60.9%.<\/p>\n
The unemployment rate fell to 6.5% in November before edging higher to 6.8% in December, reflecting renewed labour force participation rather than renewed job losses.<\/p>\n
USDCAD moved to a new high after the report but backs off <\/p>\n
USDCAD initially pushed higher following the US and Canada jobs data, reaching a session high at 1.3888, but the rally quickly stalled and the pair has since rotated lower, trading near European session lows around 1.3866. The move higher carried price into a well-defined swing resistance zone between 1.3884 and 1.3896, with the high also falling just shy of the 100-day moving average at 1.3902. That confluence of resistance attracted sellers, capping the upside and triggering the subsequent pullback.<\/p>\n
On the downside, attention shifts to the 200-bar moving average on the 4-hour chart at 1.38465, with the 200-day moving average at 1.3837 just below. A move down toward\u2014and especially through\u2014this moving-average cluster would increase downside momentum and tilt the near-term bias more firmly in favor of sellers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canada December jobs statistics show: Employment change: 8.2 K vs -5.0K estimate, +53.6K prior Unemployment rate: 6.8%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-402422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}