Canada’s Employment Change report for October is the centrepiece of Friday’s North American session, with the labour-market reading due at 13:30 UTC. As the week’s marquee Canadian data point, it puts the Canadian dollar in the spotlight across majors and crosses.
What the Employment Change report measures
Employment Change, published by Statistics Canada, measures the net change in the number of employed people from one month to the next. Markets follow it closely because jobs growth feeds into household income, consumer spending and the Bank of Canada’s read on the economy, making it one of the most market-sensitive releases on the Canadian calendar. The breakdown between full-time and part-time work is also parsed for the underlying trend. The consensus forecast points to a gain of 14.6K positions, a step back toward expansion after the previous month’s 68.3K decline.
How the Canadian dollar pairs are trading
Across our feed, AUDCAD leads the moves, down 0.78% at 0.97068, with CADJPY close behind, off 0.73% at 112.50. USDCAD trades firmer, up 0.35% at 1.40203, while CADCHF eases 0.28% to 0.58263 and NZDCAD slips 0.23% to 0.78375. EURCAD is the only advancer among the crosses on our screen, up 0.17% at 1.57200. The split leaves the loonie mixed heading into the print β firmer against the Australian and New Zealand dollars, softer versus the US dollar, euro, yen and franc.
The release is watched as a timely gauge of how quickly Canada’s labour market is steadying after the prior month’s sharp contraction.
Descriptive market news from the ForexBullion Research Team. Not investment advice.
