Job growth has ground to a near halt over the past year, with employment across household and payroll surveys, in both Canada and the U.S., trending toward zero. Setting aside plenty of nuance at the regional, sector and occupation levels that are shaping the job market, this likely reflects the reality that these two economies simply don’t need to churn out as many net new jobs as they used to in order to maintain a steady state. Gone are the days where 150k U.S. payroll prints and 15k Canadian LFS prints were considered ‘normal’—breakeven rates are now much lower. In Canada, employment growth has averaged less than ... (full story)