Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.

Canada posts surprise job gains in September, unemployment steady at 7.1%Open this photo in gallery:

A worker inspects sheets of stainless steel at Magna Stainless and Aluminum in Montreal in September.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press

Canada’s economy added 60,400 jobs in September, beating expectations and almost entirely reversing the losses of the previous month, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The increase was completely led by full-time work and it increased in 10 out of 16 industry groups. Canada’s employment gains this year have averaged about 24,000 jobs per month, almost 10,000 less than seen in the previous two years. In response, money market traders trimmed their bets that the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates again at its next policy meeting this month.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.1 per cent from August – when the rate hit a nine-year high outside of the pandemic years. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among youth or those in the age bracket of 15 to 24 years edged up to 14.7 per cent in September, the highest rate in 15 years.

Mail delivery to resume as Canada Post workers switch to rotating strikes, union saysOpen this photo in gallery:

A striking Canada Post worker stands at a picket line outside a delivery depot in Burnaby, B.C., on Sept. 29.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press

Canada Post workers will end their full-time nationwide strike and shift to rotating strikes starting Oct. 11, in a move that will resume the delivery of mail and parcels. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers made the announcement a day after meeting with the federal government over its recent decision to close rural post offices and ending door-to-door mail delivery.

In a statement, CUPW national president Jan Simpson criticized the Liberal government for making a “mockery” of the bargaining process by calling for a restructure of the postal service in the middle of negotiations. Meanwhile, the federal government – the sole shareholder of Canada Post – argues that the restructuring is needed because it is effectively insolvent and repeated bailouts are not a sustainable long-term measure to bring it back into good financial standing.

Decoder: Carney appeals to Trump’s love of the puffed-up investment dealOpen this photo in gallery:

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been under pressure to achieve relief from U.S. tariffs, especially those on steel, aluminum, lumber and autos.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Mark Carney made his second visit to the White House since taking office on Tuesday, ending the meeting without a trade deal in hand or any relief from punitive U.S. tariffs. But U.S. President Donald Trump predicted Canada and the United States would ultimately reach a deal even if some levies remain in place. Mr. Trump also talked of a budding partnership between Canada and the United States to work on his Golden Dome anti-missile defence system.

Mr. Carney also said there will be bilateral deals with the United States alongside the continental free-trade agreement, referring to the United States-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement that is also up for review next year. During the Oval Office meeting, he went to great lengths to emphasize how much money Canada has invested in the U.S. Jason Kirby takes a look at the numbers in the latest instalment of the Decoder series.

Companies fined for violating temporary foreign worker program rulesOpen this photo in gallery:

Bolero Shellfish Processing Inc. was fined and banned for 10 years from using the temporary foreign worker program.JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images

A New Brunswick seafood processing company has been fined a record $1-million for violating rules of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Bolero Shellfish Processing Inc., based in Saint-Simon, N.B., was also banned for 10 years from using the program. It is the largest fine ever levied by the federal government against companies that use the program for migrant labour, Vanmala Subramaniam reports. The Employment and Social Development Canada did not offer specific details of the company’s transgressions.

Similarly, the owner of a Canadian Tire store in Toronto was fined more than $100,000 for violating the TFW rules and allegedly exploiting foreign workers. The TFW program is a key immigration stream in Canada and is used primarily by agricultural and retail employers for job vacancies that can’t be filled domestically, but has been rife with accusations of employer exploitation.

How Canada got immigration right for so long – and then got it very, very wrongOpen this photo in gallery:

Refugees who made an irregular crossing at the Canada-U.S. border wait in a temporary detention centre in Blackpool, Que., in August, 2017.GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images

In an excerpt from columnist Tony Keller’s new book on immigration, he details how well the Canadian immigration system used to work, and how Justin Trudeau’s government – with help from business, higher education, the provinces and a marriage of progressives and Bay Street – broke it.

From the 1990s to the mid-2010s, there was a high degree of public confidence in the country’s immigration system – which was not often the case around the world. While immigration sparked growing political conflict and polarization in Europe and the United States, polls showed that Canadians had the world’s most positive and welcoming attitude toward immigrants. But then things went very, very wrong. Between 2022 and 2024, Canada had an unprecedented immigration surge, taking in 3.1 million new people. Read the full excerpt here.

What does the Bank of Canada say Canada’s banking sector needs now?

a. Tighter regulations

b. More AI

c. More competition

d. Lower taxes

c. More competition. The Bank of Canada warned this week against imposing more regulations on the financial sector. Instead, it urged measures to encourage more competition in the industry.

Get the rest of the questions from the weekly business and investing news quiz here, and prepare for the week ahead with The Globe’s investing calendar.