Canada: Unemployment Rate in April surged to 13% vs. 18% expected

• Unemployment Rate in Canada rises less than expected in April.
• USD/CAD pair continues to trade in negative territory below 1.3950.

Net Change in Employment in Canada declined by 1.99 million in April to lift the Unemployment Rate to 13% from 7.8% in March, Statistics Canada reported on Friday. Those figures beat analysts' estimates of -4 million and 18%, respectively. 

Assessing this data, "the April unemployment rate would be 17.8% when adjusted to reflect those who were not counted as unemployed for reasons specific to the COVID-19 economic shutdown," noted Statistics Canada. 

Key takeaways

"During the week of April 12, 1.1 million people were not in the labour force but had worked recently (in March or April) and wanted to work."

"They were not counted as unemployed but were counted as not in the labour force because they did not look for work, presumably due to ongoing business closures and very limited opportunities to find new work."

Market reaction

The USD/CAD pair's reaction to the data was largely muted. As of writing, the pair was down 0.2% on the day at 1.3942.