Canadians awoke Friday to an early Christmas present; unemployment plumbed lows not seen since the current's prime minister's father occupied the office.
Figures released Friday by Statistics Canada showed that the economy created 94,100 new jobs in November-- the lion's share of them full-time -- driving the unemployment rate down two-10ths of a percentage point to 5.6%, its lowest level since Statistics Canada started measuring comparable data more than 40 years ago, when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister.
The nation's number crunchers said the overall number marked the labour force survey's largest monthly increase since March 2012, when there was a gain of 94,000 jobs
The November employment surge was aided by the addition of 89,900 full-time positions. For employee work, the private sector added 78,600 positions in November, while the public sector gained 8,300 jobs.
Year-over-year average hourly wage growth for permanent employees continued its decline in November to 1.5%— to deliver its weakest reading since July 2017.
Experts have been expecting wage growth to rise thanks to the tightened labour market, but it has dropped every month since its May peak of 3.9%. It now sits well below inflation.
