Canada: Unemployment Rate drops to 7.5% in March vs. 8% expected

• Unemployment Rate in Canada fell at a stronger pace than expected in February.
• USD/CAD turned south after the data and turned negative on the day below 1.2550.

The Unemployment Rate in Canada declined to 7.5% in March from 8.2% in February as the Net Change in Employment rose by 303,000, the data published by Statistics Canada revealed on Friday. Both of these readings came in stronger than analysts' estimates.

"Both full- (+175,000; +1.2%) and part-time (+128,000; +3.9%) employment increased," the publication further read. "There were 1.5 million Canadians unemployed, up 371,000 (+32.4%) compared with February 2020."

Market reaction

The USD/CAD fell sharply with the initial reaction and was last seen losing 0.1% on the day at 1.2548.