Bank of Canada
governor
Tiff Macklem
said he sees the Canadian
labour market
as “soft” despite recent data that showed the country added 60,400 jobs in September.
In a callback to media from Washington, where he was attending meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Macklem noted the employment gain last month only partially reversed a job loss of more than 100,000 positions the previous two months, and called the data “volatile.”
“The labour market, and the economy in general, it’s not down sharply, but it is certainly soft,” he said Friday, also pointing out the
unemployment rate
has risen to 7.1 per cent from 6.6 per cent at the start of the year.
“You’ve seen job losses in the heavily tariffed sectors. In the rest of the economy, you’re really seeing very soft hiring. I think that’s consistent with the fact that firms are feeling the uncertainty.”
The Bank of Canada next sets
interest rates
on Oct. 29. Before Macklem’s comments, traders in overnight swaps put the odds of a rate cut at over 50 per cent at that meeting.
Macklem said the central bank is expecting soft growth in the second half of the year after a contraction in the second quarter. There was surprisingly strong consumption between April and June, but that’s likely to ease in the coming data prints, he said.
The bank will release a base projection in its October monetary policy report for the first time since January. The forecast will “look forward against the background of heightened uncertainty,” Macklem said.
“We will need to be humble about our forecasts and we will continue to put a lot of emphasis on the risks,” he said.
Statistics Canada reports inflation next Tuesday. On a yearly basis, headline inflation is close to the two per cent target, but some core measures remain elevated. Still, the bank has repeatedly faded its so-called trim and median gauges, saying instead that underlying price pressures are rising at a 2.5 per cent annual pace.
Bloomberg.com
Macklem says Canada's jobs market is 'soft’ despite September gain in positions
2025-10-17 18:50:42
