Heads up, news traders! If you’re looking for a top-tier release to profit from, you might wanna check out Canada’s upcoming jobs report.
This Friday at 12:30 pm GMT, Canada will print its employment figures for the month of March.
Here’s what you need to know:
What happened last time?
- Hiring jumped by 336.6K in February vs. 132K consensus
- Unemployment rate tumbled from 6.5% to 5.5%
- Labor force participation rate rose from 65% to 65.4%
Canada’s February jobs report blew expectations out of the water, printing an impressive 336.6K increase versus the projected 132K gain. This was enough to bring the jobless rate all the way down from 6.5% to pre-pandemic levels at 5.5%.
Digging deeper into the underlying data shows more positive developments, as the participation rate chalked up a big improvement from 65% to 65.4% while average hourly wages also increased.
Private sector hiring accounted for most of the gains while self-employment was mostly flat for the month. Both full-time and part-time employment rebounded, offsetting their declines in December 2021 and January.
Of course this report comes after the recent lockdowns in the country, reflecting a huge hiring boom as businesses resumed normal operations.
What are traders expecting this time?
- Employment to increase by 77.5K in March
- Unemployment rate to tick lower to 5.4%
Another pickup in hiring is expected for last month, but the figure isn’t likely to surpass February numbers. Analysts project a 77.5K increase, which might bring the jobless rate down a notch to 5.4%.
Stronger than expected data would point to good momentum in the labor market and might bolster BOC tightening hopes in their next meeting. Weak figures, on the other hand, might force the Loonie to return some of its recent gains.
Trying to decide which currency to trade against the Loonie?
Check out this MarketMilk™ performance ranking of CAD pairs to help you gauge which might be the strongest bullish or bearish rivals:
Not feeling confident about trading the event at all? That’s okay, you can always stay in the sidelines and observe the Loonie’s reaction to the release.
