Both sides of the 49th parallel experienced lower employment growth but for two different reasons. One, in Canada the vaccine rollout is still taking longer than anticipated, the number of active cases while getting smaller still remain high causing some provinces to go into various forms of lockdown and shutting down businesses and putting staff out of work even though it’s temporary. This boosted the unemployment rate significantly, however the Canadian dollar remains basically unchanged to the USD, commodities remain high offsetting the bad employment data. Two, in the USA, it’s not a matter of no jobs to be had, but rather a case of an economy moving faster than originally thought and government benefits that allow people to stay home as there is less of an incentive to work. The largest business lobbying group in America on Friday blamed a $300-per-week federal jobless benefit for enticing Americans to stay at home and April’s far-weaker-than-expected jobs report. Washington is denying these assessments and is more determined to provide further benefits. Who will win this outcome, we will have to wait and see?
Currently* Close Range
USDCAD 1.2148 1.2148 1.2125-1.2192
EURCAD 1.4760 1.4655 1.4655-1.4787
GBPCAD 1.6990 1.6869 1.6869-1.7013
Previous
