07:48 AM EDT, 08/13/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Employment in Canada was largely unchanged for the second consecutive month in July, with a decrease of 2,800 positions, said David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie referring to Friday's Labour Force Survey (LFS).

A decline in labor force participation counterbalanced the slight decline in employment, resulting in the unemployment rate remaining at 6.4%. Hours worked rebounded, gaining 1.0% m/m.

This bodes well for monthly real gross domestic product (GDP) in July and for Q3 overall, stated Doyle.

Headline wage growth cooled to 5.2% y/y from 5.6% a month earlier, with public sector industries showing a significant annual deceleration. Notably, the gap between the trend in employment growth and the breakeven level -- required to keep the employment rate constant -- has widened sharply in recent months, the Macquarie economist pointed out.

This increases the "impetus" for Bank of Canada (BoC) easing, added Doyle. Macquarie expects cuts of 25 bps per meeting with the Overnight rate falling to 2.75% by Q3 2025.