Per today’s statistical analysis provided in Canada Labour productivity down after zero growth in the second quarter. Labour productivity of Canadian businesses decreased by 1.5% in the third quarter, with hours worked rebounding more quickly than business output.
The decline in labour productivity in the third quarter follows zero growth in the previous quarter, where output and hours worked both fell at a similar pace.
After a decline of 1.3% in the previous quarter, the real gross domestic product (GDP) of businesses rose 1.4% in the third quarter. With this rebound, the GDP of businesses approached its pre-pandemic level (-3.0% compared with the fourth quarter of 2019).
Overall, 10 of the 16 industry sectors increased their output, with the growth posted by service-producing businesses (+2.3%) more than offsetting the decline posted by goods-producing businesses (-0.9%).
Employment rose by 154,000 (+0.8%) in November and was 186,000 (+1.0%) higher than its pre-pandemic February 2020 level. The unemployment rate fell to 6.0%, within 0.3 percentage points of what it was in February 2020.
Employment increased in both the services-producing and goods-producing sectors in November. Both full-time (+80,000; +0.5%) and part-time (+74,000; +2.1%) work increased, and employment gains were spread across six provinces.
In the US total non-farm payroll employment rose by 210,000 in November, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, construction, and manufacturing. Employment in retail trade declined over the month.
The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 4.2 percent in November. The number of unemployed persons fell by 542,000 to 6.9 million. Both measures are down considerably from their highs at the end of the February-April 2020 recession.
The labor force participation rate edged up to 61.8 percent in November. The participation rate is 1.5 percentage points lower than in February 2020. The employment-population ratio increased by 0.4 percentage point to 59.2 percent in November.
