Canada: Unemployment Rate stays unchanged at 5% in April, payrolls rise by 41,400

• Unemployment Rate in Canada held steady at 5% in April.
• Net Change in Employment: 41,400 vs 20,000 expected. 
• USD/CAD rises above 1.3500 as US jobs numbers surpassed expectations. 

The data published by Statistics Canada revealed on Friday that the Unemployment Rate stayed unchanged at 5% in April. This reading came in slightly better than the market expectation of 5.1%.

Further details of the publication revealed that the Net Change in Employment rose by 41,500, surpassing analysts' estimate of 20,000. The Participation Rate stay unchanged at 65.6% and the annual wage inflation remained at 5.2% in March. 

Market reaction 

The USD/CAD rose initially to 1.3505 after the jobs reports from Canada and the US, and then pulled back toward the 1.3490 area.