The Statistics Office in Canada recently released labor market data for the country during the past March, where the Canadian economy lost the equivalent of 2.2 thousand jobs, which came contrary to market expectations that indicated the economy would add about 25.9 thousand jobs, while the previous reading for February showed the Canadian economy added about 40.7 thousand jobs.

It is worth noting that the employment change index measures the change in the number of employed individuals during the past month, and this data is considered important for the Canadian economy and is issued shortly after the end of the month, strongly affecting markets due to its importance and early release time.

At the same time, the unemployment rate in Canada rose to 6.1%, the highest unemployment rate recorded by Canada since January 2022, and the new reading was worse than the currency market expectations that had indicated a rise to 5.9%, while the previous reading for the unemployment rate in Canada was about 5.8% during last February.

The unemployment rate measures the percentage of unemployed people who are looking for jobs from the total labor force within Canada, and although the index data is compiled cumulatively, the number of unemployed people is considered an indicator of the health of the Canadian economy because consumer spending is closely linked to labor market conditions, in addition to being an influential factor on the decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee for the Bank of Canada.