Canadian, U.S Job Markets Show Some Softening

Connecting the Dots monitors all major economic announcements in the United States and Canada, but the Metals Service Center Institute also offers industrial metals industry-specific data products that provide much deeper analysis and insight. Visit MSCI’s website and click on industry data to learn more about our Metals Activity Report (MAR), Momentum Monitors, and Macroeconomic Current. Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• The Canadian economy shed 25,000 in January 2026 and the nation’s unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 6.5 percent due to the fact that fewer people were searching for work last month. Employers added 134,000 jobs from January 2025 to January 2026 and the gains were mostly in full-time work. Read the full report.
• The number of job openings in the United States fell by 386,000 to 6.5 million in December 2025, bringing the rate of job openings to 3.9 percent. That number was down from a peak of 4.6 percent set in September 2025. The hiring rate increased to 3.3 percent, meanwhile.
• During the week that ended Jan. 31, 231,000 Americans filed for federal unemployment benefits for the first time, a 22,000 increase from the previous week’s level. The four-week moving average of first-time claims was 212,250, up 6,000 from the previous week. The number of people who continued to receive jobless benefits rose to 1.844 million for the week that ended Jan. 24, 2026. That number was up by 25,000 from the week before. The four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped to 1,850,750, a decrease of 14,750 from the week before, and the lowest reading for that metric since Oct. 5, 2024.