by Ephraim Vecina
After three straight months of stagnant levels, the Canadian workforce saw the addition of 81,000 new jobs last month.
The increase far surpassed earlier predictions of roughly 20,000 new workers, and contributed to the massive 471,300 new jobs in the economy during the past year alone.
This was the largest 12-month gain since 2003, keeping the unemployment rate at just 5.7%, Bloomberg reported.
CIBC World Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld said that this is evidence of Canada’s robustness against the influence of global trade turmoil – further building the case for the central bank hold its overnight rate yet again in its October meeting.
“If the Bank of Canada was on the fence about cutting rates in October, [these] jobs numbers might be one further push towards standing pat,” Shenfeld wrote in an investor note late last week.
These developments bode well for prospective home buyers’ purchasing power. Home sales activity in the nation’s largest markets has intensified recently, indicating that Canadians have already weathered the pressures imposed by the stress test.
Data from the Toronto Real Estate Board indicated that in the GTA, residential transactions had a 13% year-over-year increase in August. New listings also fell by 3% annually, while the average home price in the GTA grew by 3.6% to reach $792,611.
Meanwhile, residential sales in Vancouver enjoyed a notable 15.7% year-over-year growth, even as the benchmark home price dropped by 8.3% annually to $993,300. This was the lowest level since May 2017, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.