Canada Unemployment Rate holds steady at 6.6% in February vs. 6.7% expected

• The Unemployment Rate in Canada remained unchanged at 6.6% in February.
• USD/CAD trades in positive territory above 1.4350 after the data.

The Unemployment Rate in Canada held steady at 6.6% in February, Statistics Canada reported on Friday. This reading came in slightly better than the market expectation of 6.7%. In this period, the Employment Change was 1.1K, below the January print and the market expectation of 76K and 20K, respectively.

"Total hours worked fell 1.3% in the month, but were up 0.5% compared with 12 months earlier," the press release read. "Average hourly wages among employees were up 3.8% (+$1.32 to $36.14) on a year-over-year basis in February, following growth of 3.5% in January (not seasonally adjusted)."

Market reaction

USD/CAD gathers recovery following this report and was last seen rising 0.5% on the day at 1.4368.