"The increase in April suggests the economy still has very little momentum"
-Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets
The pace of hiring in the Canadian economy accelerated in April, albeit slower than expected, signalling the long winter of labour market contraction may be at an end, Statistics Canada said in a report. Canada's economy created 12,500 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate held steady at 7.2%. Economists, however expected the economy to add 15,000 new work places. Even though the data did not match expectations, Canada is recovering from a slump in exports and investment in late 2012, with the April gain following March's employment drop of 54,500. The country's labour market is not forecast to stall in 2013 with unemployment averaging 7.1% in the fourth quarter.
"The increase in April suggests the economy still has very little momentum," Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said by telephone from Toronto. He cited the 13,200 net jobs lost this year and the April decline in private sector employment.
"Canada is going to continue to have sluggish growth" in the next two years, said Dean Connor, chief executive officer of Sun Life Financial Inc., in a phone interview May 9 from Toronto. "It's driven off of demand for commodities and a slowdown in expansion of credit in the housing sector."
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