The Canadian unemployment rate has risen with 0.2 percentage points in July to 5.7 per cent, as reported by Statistics Canada. Thus, the recent trend of slowly rising unemployment has almost reached the point where the Canadian economy could be said to no longer be working at full employment.
“There were fewer people working in wholesale and retail trade; transportation and warehousing; “other services”; and natural resources. In contrast, employment increased in construction and public administration. […] The number of private sector employees fell in July, while self-employment rose.” [source]
This final observation regarding the increased self-employment rate somewhat negates the negative impact of a higher unemployment rate that is impacting the general economy. Thus, despite the fact that unemployment is rising for the third consecutive month this year, the situation is not yet demanding an interest rate reduction by the Bank of Canada.
Overall, the initial market reaction of the USDCAD to the news was to appreciate with 50 pips to 1.32740, but then the price corrected itself, and the pair once again reverted itself below the bottom-boundary of the recent bullish trend.