Market Musings & Data Deciphering

Posted by David Rosenberg - Gluskin Sheff

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In this issue

Canadian jobs report – decent start to the year:

• full-time employment rose 31.1k after a nice 40.5k pickup to round out 2010

• while the majority of the job gain was in the civil service, the private sector did post a decent 22.7k payroll expansion in January

• if there was a blemish it was that there was no growth in the workweek but what helped compensate for that was a 0.9% pickup in average hourly earnings

U.S. employment – snow job?

• bullish or bearish, there was something for everyone

• the headline nonfarm payroll report came in light at +36k

• the Household survey also showed a more modest 117k jobs being created last month

• there is no doubt that the weather exerted a major impact