Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a net gain of 25,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to rise to 5.9% from 5.8% in February.

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COMMENTARY

ANDREW GRANTHAM, SENIOR ECONOMIST, CIBC CAPITAL MARKETS

“The cracks that had been emerging within the Canadian labour market suddenly got a lot wider.”

“While markets had been pushing back expectations for a first Bank of Canada interest rate cut following strong GDP data to start the year, today’s labour force data should see them pulling those expectations forward again closer in line to our expectation for a first move in June.”

DEREK HOLT, VICE PRESIDENT OF CAPITAL MARKETS ECONOMICS, SCOTIABANK

“I think what drives incomes more than anything is the older workers and the payroll employees (with regards to low employment numbers among young people and its impact on inflation numbers)… so we still have September as our forecast for our first rate cut, I don’t think for the Bank of Canada’s goal is June rate cut. We will see Governor (Tiff) Macklem sounding less dovish next week and continue to signal patience.”

DOUG PORTER, CHIEF ECONOMIST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS

“It’s a weak one. There’s little debate about that. Even some of the details weren’t great. One of our initial reactions here is we were due for a soft report given the underlying softness of the economy over the past year.”

“The bigger picture is the small stutter in job growth at a time when population is growing so rapidly led to a very big back up in the unemployment rate and arguably that’s one of the more important statistics here … We cannot call the Canadian job market tight given the very rapid backup in the unemployment rate over the past year.”

(Reporting by Fergal Smith, Divya Rajagopal; Editing by Denny Thomas)