Canada’s Trade Deficit Widens, But Manufacturing Industry Adds Jobs

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:

• Economic reports from U.S. agencies were not released last week due to a federal government shutdown.
• According to Statistics Canada, the country’s merchandise trade deficit widened in August to $6.32 billion due to the fact that exports fell faster in both value and volume than imports increased. Total exports dropped by three percent while imports increased only 0.9 percent. Exports to the whole world declined, but the drop in shipments to the United States was particularly significant. In August, exports to Canada’s southern neighbor fell 3.4 percent to $44.18 billion.
• Statistics Canada also recently announced that the country’s employers added 60,000 jobs in September, including 28,000 new jobs in the manufacturing industry. The manufacturing sector gain was the first since January 2025. While part-time employment fell by 46,000, employers added nearly 106,000 full-time jobs. The national unemployment rate remained unchanged from August at 7.1 percent due to the fact that more people entered the workforce.