OTTAWA — The Canadian economy added 150,000 jobs in January while the unemployment rate held steady at five per cent.

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Economists had been expecting a gain of 15,000 and for the jobless rate to edge up to 5.1 per cent.

“It was a blowout report for the Canadian labour market,” wrote TD Economics senior economist James Orlando after the data.

“The 150k jobs gain is one thing, but the fact that gains were concentrated in full-time jobs in the private sector, alongside people working more hours, makes this an even more impressive report.”

Statistics Canada reported on Feb. 10 that January’s job gains were driven mostly by workers aged 25 to 54 across several sectors, with the biggest gains in wholesale and retail trade.

More Canadians were working or looking for work as 153,000 people joined the labour force.

Wages were up 4.5 per cent year-on-year in January, a slightly slower pace than the 4.8 per cent in December.

Nonetheless, Orlando said the blockbuster report was bound to raise eyebrows at the Bank of Canada.

“Their conditional pause on further rate hikes is predicated on a slowing of economic growth and an easing in the labour market,” he wrote.

“The Bank won’t adjust course after one report, but it will be closely watching to see if this trend of massive job gains continues.”

Canada’s job market has been rising now for five months in a row, adding a total of 326,000 jobs.

Jobless rates by province

(numbers from the previous month in brackets)

Additional reporting by Canadian Press