News in end use

The total number of employed Canadians increased 0.1%, or by 27,000 positions, in May. However, the employment rate declined 0.1 percentage points to 61.3%.

MBA released its Mortgage Credit Availability Index report for May. According to the MCAI, which analyzes data from ICE Mortgage Technology, mortgage credit availability increased in May.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.99%, down from last week when it averaged 7.03%.

Fannie Mae released its Q2 Home Price Expectation Survey. Following home price growth of 6.6% in 2023, the panel forecasts annual national home price growth of 4.3% in 2024 and 3.2% in 2024.

US-based employers announced 63,816 job cuts in May, a 1.5% decline from the 64,789 job cuts reported in April. This is also a 20.0% decline from the 80,089 job cuts announced in May 2023.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims made during the week ending Saturday, June 1st was 229,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week.

A lack of existing inventory and pent-up demand is fueling single-family permit growth across all tracked geographic regions in the US, NAHB reported.

Mortgage loan application volume decreased 5.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, MBA reported.

Private sector employment increased by 152,000 jobs in May and annual compensation gains held steady at 5.0% year-over-year, ADP reported.

Following an upwardly revised estimate of open construction employment in March (from 274,000 to 346,000), the April estimate shows a further decline to 338,000 jobs.