Canada Adds 79,500 Jobs in November, Unemployment Rate Falls to 5.9%

The Canadian labor market continues to defy expectations, as the economy recorded the biggest one-month job gain in nearly six years while the unemployment rate dropped below the 6% mark to a fresh post-crisis low.

Wage growth also accelerated, with average hourly pay rising at its fastest pace in 19 months.

The Canadian economy added a net 79,500 jobs in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, Statistics Canada said Friday. The consensus call among traders was for a 10,000-job advance, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada. The last time the economy added this many jobs in one month was in April, 2012.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 5.9% in November from a 6.3% level in the previous month. This marks the lowest rate of joblessness in Canada since February, 2008. When using U.S. Labor Department methodology, Canada's jobless rate in November was 5.1%.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 01, 2017 08:45 ET (13:45 GMT)