Recent thoughts on jobs and economy via BNN

I spoke to Paul Waldie on BNN this past Friday about the US and Canadian jobs reports. The BBH note that morning on the risk of “buy the rumor sell the fact” ahead of the jobs report was on the money. After the stellar ADP data on Wednesday, the whisper number for US non-farm payrolls had moved up to 200,000. With the number coming in well below that (+103,000), it was a disappointment. On the other hand, the Canadian number at +22,000 was good and above expectations. It wasn’t gangbusters good because the Canadian economy produced +30,000 per month on average in 2010. But in an economy with a tenth as many people as in the US, that number is the equivalent of about 200,000 jobs added in the U.S.

Bottom line: the U.S. labour market is still weak. Canada’s is much stronger. Nevertheless, I believe recovery will continue in both countries.

Video below (click on picture to watch).