The Canadian job market continued to tighten into November, even though the recently surging economy has been showing some signs of slowing.

Canada’s job market soared by an astonishing 80,000 in the month of November, which was its twelfth monthly increase and the best gain in five years. The unemployment rate plummeted 0.4 percentage points to 5.9% in November, and the labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 65.7%. 

Wage growth also picked up in November to 2.7% year-over-year compared with its recent low as 0.5% in April.

Private sector job growth accounted for the bulk of the new jobs in November gain, though more part-time jobs were created (50,000) than full time (30,000).

The job gains in November were very widespread, led by Ontario (44,000), British Columbia (18,000) and Quebec (16,000).

At the industry level, employment in the manufacturing industry has been trending up since the start of 2017, and November’s 30,000 advances brought the year-over-year increase to 91,000 (+5.4%)

As matters currently stand, Canada’s unemployment rate has plunged a full percentage point since the end of 2016.

Ironically, Canadian real GDP slowed to an annualized pace of 1.7% in the third quarter, far slower than the spectacularly fast 4.1% increase in the second quarter.

So, the rapid increase in job growth in November suggests that Canada’s economy will likely post a strong economic growth rate in the fourth quarter.