Heads up, Loonie traders! Canada will be printing its jobs report on Friday 12:30 pm GMT.
Planning on trading the event? Here are the points you need to know first:
How did the previous release turn out?
- Canada lost 207.1K jobs in April vs. the projected losses of 160.5K
- The unemployment rate jumped from 7.5% to 8.1%
- Total hours worked dropped while labor underutilization increased
Canada’s April jobs report was a huge disappointment, as the economy lost 207.1K jobs and saw a significant increase in its unemployment rate.
As many expected, the latest wave of COVID-19 cases and resulting lockdowns led to several layoffs in industries affected by public health restrictions.Majority of the job losses were reported in Ontario and British Colombia, where stay-at-home orders and “circuit breaker” measures were implemented.
The number of Canadians working from home was more or less unchanged, but total hours worked for the month took a hit even among the self-employed.
What’s expected this time?
- Employment losses of 23.5K are expected for May
- The jobless rate could still tick higher to 8.2%
A slower increase in unemployment is expected for the month of May, although this would still likely bring the unemployment rate up a notch to 8.2%.
It’s worth noting that Markit’s manufacturing PMI dipped from 57.2 to 57.0 in May.Underlying data reflected an uptick in hiring, as businesses added to their workforce to keep up with a surge in output and new orders.
If you’re 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.