By Paul Vieira
OTTAWA--Canada added jobs in November, although it marked the slowest one-month employment gain since the recovery this spring from a pandemic-induced abyss.
The unemployment rate dropped because people stopped looking for work.
Canada's November jobs report reflects labor-market conditions for the period between Nov. 8 and Nov. 14. Later in November, Canada's most-populous province, Ontario, ordered a lockdown covering the country's biggest city, Toronto, and some of Toronto's largest suburbs. A lockdown was also implemented in the province of Manitoba. Those measures, reflecting exponential growth of Covid-19 cases during a second wave of infections, set the stage for a weaker December employment report, economists warn.
Canadian employment rose by a net 62,100 jobs in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, Statistics Canada said Friday, following an advance in the previous month of about 84,000. Market expectations were for an increase of 20,000 jobs in November, according to economists with TD Securities. All the new jobs created were in the full-time category.
The unemployment rate dropped to 8.5% in November from the previous month's 8.9% level. Traders anticipated the unemployment rate to remain unchanged in November. However, Canada's jobs report indicated 19,000 exited the labour force, indicating they stopped looking for work.
When adjusted for U.S. data methodology, Canada's unemployment rate in November was 7.1%. U.S. employment data for November indicated America's jobless rate edged down in the month to 6.7%, and that job growth slowed sharply.
With November's results, Canada has recovered nearly 81% of the jobs lost in March and April, when the pandemic hit North America in earnest and forced widespread economic closings.
The labor underutilization rate reflects the proportion of people in the potential labour force who are either unemployed, want a job but have not looked for one, or are working less than half their usual hours because of the pandemic. That rate fell to 16.9% in November, which is down sharply from the 36.1% high in April but remains above the prepandemic 11.2% mark.
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-04-20 0950ET