Canada added 79,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 5.7 per cent in December, the lowest since 1976. In British Columbia, the jobless rate fell to 4.6 per cent by the end of 2017, the lowest among all the provinces.
In B.C, employment increased by 83,000, at a growth of of 3.4% in 2017. The gains were almost all in full-time work, and were mainly in health care and social assistance, construction, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing, according to Statistics Canada.
"The books closed on a phenomenal year for Canadian employment with another spectacular result for December," CIBC economist Nick Exarhos says.
The report suddenly raises the odds of a Bank of Canada rate hike this month. "In our judgement, that should be enough to see the Bank of Canada hike rates later this month, with the employment figures more than enough to offset recent disappointments on GDP", according to Huffington Post Canada.
The loonie jumped after the news.
