Canada Labour Force Survey: Canadian jobs data and 6C futures

Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey reports monthly employment, the unemployment rate and wages in Canada. Like all Statistics Canada releases it is published at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, and it can land on the same morning as the US jobs report. Canadian dollar futures (6C) react to both, which makes the reaction on those days a combined one.

Senzoukria · Economic events · Updated September 2026

At a glance

Published by
Statistics Canada, in The Daily
Frequency
Monthly; dates on Statistics Canada's release calendar
Usual time
8:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. Chicago)
Figures
Employment change, unemployment rate, average hourly wages, full-time vs part-time
Contracts in scope
6C Canadian dollar futures (CME); Canadian rate futures

What the survey measures

The Labour Force Survey is a household survey. It estimates employment, unemployment and participation, and splits employment into full-time and part-time, public and private, and by industry and province. It also reports average hourly wages of employees.

Because it is a household survey with a relatively small sample, month-to-month changes can be noisy. The breakdown between full-time and part-time jobs is often used to judge the quality of a headline change.

Why it matters for the Canadian dollar

  • Labor market slack and wage growth feed the Bank of Canada's inflation outlook and the expected path of its policy rate.
  • 6C, priced in US dollars per Canadian dollar, reflects the change in the expected gap between Canadian and US rates.
  • When the survey lands on the same morning as US payrolls, 6C reacts to both countries' data in the same second.
  • Oil prices remain a separate driver of the Canadian dollar and can dominate on the day.

Order flow on a shared 8:30 a.m.

When the Canadian and US jobs reports print together, the 7:30 CT footprint bar in 6C is a joint reaction to two surprises. If they point the same way for the Canadian dollar, for example strong Canadian and weak US data, the move tends to be one-sided; if they offset, the bar can show heavy two-sided trade with little net progress.

One way to separate the two is to compare 6C with other dollar-quoted currency futures such as 6E. A move common to all of them is mostly about the US data; a move specific to 6C is mostly about Canada. On days when the Canadian survey prints alone, the reaction is cleaner and usually smaller.

In Senzoukria

Canadian releases appear in the News calendar under CA, which is off by default; enable it in the Countries filter. Enabling CA and US together shows the two jobs reports side by side when they share a morning.

Two chart panes on the same timeline, 6C and 6E, each with its macro event line, give the comparison described above without switching screens.

In the same section

Sources

This page in other languages

Frequently asked questions

What time is the Canadian jobs report released?
At 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Statistics Canada publishes all its releases in The Daily at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on working days; the date of each Labour Force Survey is on its release calendar.
Why does the Canadian dollar react to US jobs data too?
6C is priced in US dollars, so anything that changes US rate expectations moves it. On mornings when both jobs reports print together, the reaction mixes the two.

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