-Benjamin Reitzes, MO Capital Markets vice-president and senior economist
Canada's employment growth was slightly better than predicted in July, with employers creating 6,600 jobs in the reported month, enough to offset the preceding month's losses of 6,400 positions. Economists, however, had expected a gain of 5,000. Yet, the nation's unemployment rate remained at 6.8% for the sixth consecutive month, while participation rate stood at 65.7%, Statistics Canada reported.
A separate report showed Canada's building permits rose more than expected in June amid higher intentions to build multi-family dwellings. The total value of building permits issued by Canadian municipalities in June climbed 14.8% to 7.74 billion Canadian dollars. Meanwhile, the previous month's decline was revised to 13.9% from 14.5%. Canadian economists have been monitoring the housing situation very closely, especially in light of rising household debt. Meanwhile, purchasing activity slowed further in July. Canada's Ivey PMI came in at 52.9, compared with the previous month's figure of 55.9 and better than economists' expectations for a 51.8 reading. Ivey's PMI includes both the public and private sectors and consists of five components: purchases, employment, inventories, supplier deliveries and prices. In May, the gauge surged to the highest level in 19 months of 62.3.
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