Canada jobless number ticks upThe Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the Canadian economy added jobs at a slower pace in October and the unemployment rate ticked up, the latest sign of how higher interest rates are weighing on economic activity. The Globe's Matt Lundy writes that the labour market added 17,500 jobs last month, after increases of nearly 64,000 positions in September and 40,000 in August, Statistics Canada said Friday. Analysts on Bay Street were expecting a gain of 25,000 in October. Despite the increase, the unemployment rate rose to 5.7 per cent from 5.5 per cent, the highest level since January, 2022. The labour force is expanding quickly, because of an immigration boom, but employers are not creating enough jobs to keep the jobless rate from rising. Meanwhile, average hourly wages rose 4.8 per cent on an annual basis in October -- down from a 5-per-cent pace in September. This is an encouraging sign for the Bank of Canada, which has repeatedly flagged elevated wage growth as a risk to the inflation outlook. "While the headline job gain was uneventful, make no mistake that the underlying picture for Canada's labour market is softening," Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter said in a note to clients.