Live news: 3 Scotiabank executives leave in latest management shakeup

financialpost.com:

United States job growth slowed in October by more than expected and the unemployment rate rose to an almost two-year high of 3.9 per cent, indicating that employers’ strong demand for workers is beginning to cool.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 150,000 last month following a downwardly revised 297,000 in September, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed Friday. Monthly wage growth slowed.

The latest figures suggest some cracks are beginning to form in a jobs market that has been gradually normalizing thanks to an improvement in labour supply over the past year and a tempering of demand for workers.

Stock futures and Treasuries rallied after the report, while the dollar weakened. Traders marked down chances of a United States Federal Reserve interest-rate hike in coming months.

The rise in unemployment suggests a pickup in layoffs — a development employers had so far broadly avoided. The survey of households showed a more than 200,000 increase in those who lost their job or completed a temporary one.

Health care and social assistance, as well as government, drove the payrolls gain. Other categories, however, showed tepid growth or outright declines. Manufacturing payrolls fell by 35,000 in October, largely a reflection of the United Auto Workers union strike. The hit will prove temporary though, given union members have since struck tentative deals with the nation’s largest automakers.

Looking ahead, sustained setbacks in the labour market — the bedrock of consumer spending and the broader economy — risk raising concerns about the nation’s ability to weather high interest rates without falling into recession.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.2 per cent last month and were up 4.1 per cent from a year earlier, the smallest