Although the report from its southern neighbor may have received more hype, Canada’s monthly jobs report was probably more exciting. The North American economy added 95,000 jobs in May on a seasonally adjusted basis. That’s the most jobs it’s added in any single month since August 2002, when the economy grew by 95,100 jobs.
The number is particularly notable since Canada’s labor market has been feeling the pinch recently. In fact, Canadian job creation has seemed to slow down so far this year. That may be turning around, however. After a sluggish second half of 2012, Statistics Canada said that the Canadian economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.5% in the first quarter of 2013.