656,000 Vacant Jobs In Canada
According to new data from Statistics Canada, there were 656,700 vacant in Canada as of February 2024, this was up by 21,000 jobs compared to January 2024.
The largest increase in vacant jobs come from transportation, warehousing and finance and insurance sectors, which had an additional 16,000 and 4,000 unfilled jobs, respectively.
Public Administration Jobs Surge
The number of people on payroll in Canada was flat in February when compared to January, but was up by 154,000 jobs (0.9%) from the year prior.
Most of these jobs increases have come from educational services, public administration, finance and insurance and healthcare.
Public administration itself by 6,600 jobs in February, following an increase of 6,700 jobs in January.
Year over year payroll employment in public administration was up 4.5%.
Wages Up, Again
The average weekly wage of a Canadian worker was up 0.5% month-over-month in February to $1,232.
This represents a year-over-year increase of 4.5% in February,
The largest wage increases came from management companies which saw a 10.5% percent increase in their weekly wages in February.
Bank of Canada Will See These Numbers as Healthy
Hot payroll and jobs data puts the Bank of Canada in a bind, on the one hand core inflation is declining. (which might put them in a position to cut)
On the other hand, hot jobs and wage data suggest that the Canadian economy is healthy — and if the economy isn’t broken, perhaps they shouldn’t try to fix it by stimulating (especially given the exorbitantly high 6%+ shelter inflation readings).
“Sustained” Path to Normal Required Before Cuts
In their recent deliberation minutes, the Bank of Canada Governing Council agreed that they needed to see “sustained” decreases in core inflation and other economic data before deciding to cut.
Well, time is running out — with only a few more data points coming out before their June 7th policy interest rate decision, the Bank of Canada is likely going to need see more to justify a rate cut.
