'Cuts are coming': Economists react to March jobs data

Experts believe Canada’s surprisingly weak jobs data for March indicates that interest rate cuts are on the horizon.

On Friday, Statistics Canada reported Canada’s unemployment rate jumped up to 6.1 per cent in March, as the country lost 2,200 jobs after small increases in previous months.

Tu Nguyen, economist with tax and consultancy firm RSM Canada, said the data is a “sign that rate cuts are coming.”

“All the data point to an imminent rate cut: the unemployment rate surpassed six per cent for the first time in over two years, inflation excluding shelter and inflation excluding mortgage interest payments fall to target, and the economy have flatlined for months on end,” Nguyen wrote in a news release on Friday.