Canada: Unemployment rate ticked up to 5.5% in June from 5.4% in May

• Unemployment rate rose to 5.5% in June to come in worse than the market expectation of 5.4%.
• Net change in employment comes in at -2.2K vs +10K expected.

Statistics Canada on Friday reported that the unemployment rate in June rose to 5.5% from 5.4% in May with the number of employed decreasing by 2,200. The disappointing labour market data from Canada and the broad-based USD strength amid upbeat NFP figures allowed the USD/CAD pair to gain more than 50 pips in a matter of minutes. At the moment, the pair is up 0.45% on the day at 1.3110.

Key takeaways from the press release

"On a year-over-year basis, employment was up by 421,000 or 2.3%. Over the same period, total hours worked increased by 1.8%."

"In the second quarter, employment rose by 132,000 (+0.7%), virtually all in full-time work."