Canada Unemployment Rate declines to 6.5% in September vs. 6.7% expected

• Unemployment Rate in Canada declined slightly in September.
• USD/CAD pushes lower following the upbeat Canadian employment data.

The Unemployment Rate in Canada edged lower to 6.5% in September from 6.6% in August, Statistics Canada reported on Friday. This reading came in below the market expectation of 6.7%.

Further details of the jobs report showed that the Net Change in Employment came in at 46.7K in the same period, up sharply from 22.1K in August. Finally, the Average Hourly Wages rose 4.5%, at a softer pace than the 4.9% increase recorded in August, while the Participation Rate declined to 64.9% from 65.1.

Market reaction

USD/CAD turned south with the immediate reaction and retreated from the two-month high it set above 1.3780. At the time of press, the pair was virtually unchanged on the day at 1.3740.