Canada – Straight down the Fairway

The Bank of Canada rate decision yesterday provided very little by way of ‘new’ information. In the event, the Bank acknowledged improvement in the growth profile relative to their January baseline, while also highlighting ongoing challenges in the labour market. Governing Council (GC) rightly noted that the level of employment today remains “a long way from recovery”, which increases the importance of tomorrows labour force survey (LFS) for the February reference period. Relative to pre-pandemic levels Canada has some 835.0k fewer jobs. And given that Canada had lost 212.0k positions since the January rate decision, it is not too surprising to see this reference show up now when it was notably absent from the January statement (which came off of a 52K decline in net employment in December).