Statistics Canada reported on Friday that both the goods and services industries added jobs, but most profits went to Ontario and Quebec, which added 35,000 and 27,000 new jobs, respectively. The unemployment rate is now lower than before the pandemic, when it was just 5.4 percent in May 2019. Unemployment could well fall further as employment growth outstrips Canada’s population growth for more than half a year now, the data service said. As of September 2021, Canada has added 463,000 new jobs, although the working-age population has grown by only 263,000. This is a recipe for low unemployment, which is good news for job seekers, but it is also good news for people who already have a job, as it is likely to lead to higher wages. Growing demand for workers has pushed average wages by 3.4% year-on-year through March. This is about half the rate of inflation, but if current trends in the labor market continue, then wages must also rise. “Wages have only one road ahead, with a record low unemployment rate and workers’ wages lagging far behind inflation … and that’s straightforward,” said Bank of Montreal economist Doug Porter. Jay Zhao-Murray, an analyst at foreign exchange firm Monex Canada, said the number of jobs for March indicates that wages are on a clear trajectory. “Wage increases are an indicator of the backwardness of a narrow labor market and, therefore, are likely to increase in the coming months,” Zhao-Murray said.
