Statcan suspends preview of key jobs report after leak
Statistics Canada says it will stop providing a preview of its monthly jobs report to certain government officials “until further notice,” a decision that comes after details about April’s employment numbers were published ahead of their normally scheduled release time.
Canada’s monthly employment figures are typically published on a Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, but Bloomberg published a story last Friday containing key points of the April jobs report before 8 a.m., citing someone familiar with the data.
While a journalistic scoop, the leak set off alarm bells for certain people, as the jobs data is considered potentially market-moving information that could, as an example, influence valuations of Canada’s currency.
Following the leak, Statistics Canada launched an internal investigation.
Statistics Canada said late Tuesday that it provides pre-release information on its Labour Force Survey (LFS) to a “select group of stakeholders” and that, to do so, the agency’s chief statistician seeks permission from the Clerk of the Privy Council, the country’s top bureaucrat.
“Pre-release information is provided under strict conditions and through secure channels,” the agency said. “There will be no pre-release of LFS information until further notice.”
Officials who get the pre-release data include those from the finance, employment and privy council departments, Statcan said.
Beginning in April, advance access to the job numbers was extended to the Bank of Canada and the economic development ministry. Those who get the data in advance have to sign a statement agreeing to keep the numbers confidential ahead of time, according to Statistics Canada, and they are banned from briefings until 5 p.m. on Thursday, when markets are closed.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Industry Minister Navdeep Bains have said they plan to get to the bottom of what happened.
In addition to its internal probe, Statistics Canada says it will also take “appropriate action going forward.”
Michael Chong, a Conservative member of Parliament, twice asked Bains in the House of Commons on May 13 if the RCMP have been asked to investigate, given the possibility that provisions of the Statistics Canada Act had been broken. Bains demurred both times.
“This is completely unacceptable. That is why we’re going to make sure there is a proper and thorough examination done,” said Bains, who is the minister in charge of Statistics Canada.
“Going forward we want to make sure that no such breach or no such leak occurs.”
Canada’s job numbers for April were not as bad as some expected, but they were still brutal, as the COVID-19 crisis was in full swing during the month.
Employment was down by nearly two million positions and the unemployment rate rose 5.2 percentage points to 13 per cent.
“While the tragic job loss is the main focus, a major security breach occurred, and some may have profited from it,” wrote Derek Holt, the head of capital markets economics at the Bank of Nova Scotia.
Holt added that there “must be an official investigation into a serious leak that tarnishes the reputation of Canadian markets.”
The federal government has previously had to probe this sensitive subject.
In 2010, the government of the day announced it had hired accounting firm KPMG to investigate Statcan’s early release of economic data, which found some data distributors were getting the information up to 59 seconds in advance.