Statistics Canada said employers added roughly 27,000 positions last month, too few for the agency to say with confidence that employment grew, given the labour force survey’s margin of error. The unemployment rate increased to 6.2 per cent from 6.1 per cent in April, and average hourly wages rose 5.1 per cent from a year earlier, compared with 4.7 per cent the previous month. (The Logic) 

Talking point: The first question at Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem’s press conference on Wednesday was whether he planned to follow this week’s interest rate cut with another one at the July 24 policy announcement. The latest jobs numbers are the first of a handful of key indicators that will inform the answer. Wage growth of around five per cent could give Macklem pause, as he’s said repeatedly that such a pace is inflationary. But the percentage of the population with a job dropped to 61.3 per cent, the lowest since January 2022 and weaker than the 2019 average of 62.3 per cent. The post-pandemic recovery is losing steam.