Jobs in Canada: Unemployment rate down [Video]

OTTAWA –

The Canadian labour market exceeded many economists’ expectations in September, adding more than twice as many jobs as the previous month while unemployment ticked lower.

Statistics Canada reported on Friday that the economy added 47,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate declined for the first time since January to 6.5 per cent.

The overall job gains followed four consecutive months of little change, the agency said.

The report was stronger than expected, said Leslie Preston, managing director and senior economist at TD.

But she cautioned that the monthly jobs report can be volatile, and that the longer-term trend in Canada’s labour market has been downward.

“I would probably characterize this as a break in the cooling trend in the labour market,” she said.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast employers added 27,000 jobs in September and expected the unemployment rate to have ticked higher to 6.7 per cent.

The …