06:51 AM EST, 01/14/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Financial markets were rattled by Friday's surprisingly strong United States payrolls result for December, said Bank of Montreal (BMO).

However, the bank pointed to three facts:

-- 1) Yearly U.S. job growth actually cooled --ever so slightly -- as last December was even stronger, up 296,000 jobs. The yearly growth rate in payrolls of 1.4% is solid, but not especially strong -- it's actually almost exactly back in

line with the pace before the COVID-19 pandemic.

-- 2) Canadian job growth, as measured by the Labour Force Survey (LFS), has actually been firmer over the past year, at up 2.0% year over year. The gap in hours worked is very similar -- 2.1% year over year in Canada versus 1.0% in the U.S. The big underperformance of overall gross domestic product growth is due to much weaker Canadian

productivity trends.

-- 3) The recent pick-up in Canadian job growth trends is

entirely consistent with other signs that spending perked up in the second half of 2024 after a prolonged rough patch.