2024 started with thousands of new roles for workers in Canada. According to Canadian Visa Expert, more than 37,000 jobs were added to the Canadian economy in January 2024 as the unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent.
A recently released report by Statistics Canada showed that the fall in the unemployment rate to 5.7 percent is the first decline to take place in over a year.
Canadian Visa Expert could also confirm that the new job opportunities are more concentrated in the public sector.
However, the shocking revelation is that even with the reduced unemployment rate, the employment rate has also fallen for four consecutive months because the new job growth is not sufficient to offset the surge in population.
In the past year, the working population growth of 15-plus has jumped by one million, while employment has only risen by 345,000 roles.
Opinions of Financial Analysts on the Canadian economy
Canadian Visa Expert opines that the main reason why the unemployment rate managed to fall in January could be because only a smaller proportion of people participated in the labor market.
Some financial analysts also commented that the Bank of Canada would unlikely lower interest rates before June since the employment rate is rising and wage growth is also increasing.
In the words of Royce Mendes, head of macro strategy at Desjardins Securities:
“The employment data suggests that June is now more likely for the first Bank of Canada rate cut of this cycle than April.”