Canada's jobless rate reaches 6.8% in November

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OTTAWA — Canada’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.8 per cent last month as more people looked for work in a weak job market.

Statistics Canada’s November labour force survey says the jobless rate last month reached the highest since January 2017, outside of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent in October.

Meanwhile, the economy added 51,000 jobs in November, with employment gains concentrated in full-time work.

The labour force participation rate, which reflects the proportion of working-age people who are employed or looking for work, rose by 0.3 percentage points last month.

That increase explains why the unemployment rate climbed, even as the economy created more jobs.

The Bank of Canada will have its eye on Friday’s job report as it gears up for its interest rate announcement on Wednesday.

Forecasters are widely expecting the central bank to deliver another interest rate cut, though there hasn’t been consensus on the size of that reduction.

BMO changed its call from a quarter-percentage-point cut to a half-point reduction in the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate following the job report.

“To be clear, this is what we believe the bank will do, not necessarily what we believe that they should do,” wrote BMO chief economist Douglas Porter.

“But the bank seems biased to ease quickly, and the high jobless rate provides them with a ready invitation.”

The central bank’s key interest rate currently stands at 3.75 per cent.

High interest rates have cooled the labour market significantly over the last year.

For unemployed Canadians, that’s meant longer periods without work.

The job report says 46.3 per cent of unemployed Canadians in November had not worked in the last year or had never worked, up from 39.5 per cent a year ago.

Average hourly wages were up 4.1 per cent from a year ago, marking a slowdown in annual wage growth from October.

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