After the latest US and Canadian employment figures, the USD/CAD exchange rate increased for the second consecutive day, climbing to a peak of 1.3580 on Friday. This marked an increase from the week's low of 1.3477.

The USD/CAD pair was particularly volatile throughout the week as traders paid attention to statements from Federal Reserve officials such as Jerome Powell, Mary Daly, Loretta Mester, and Raphael Bostic.

The pair also responded to robust manufacturing figures from the US. The Institute of Supply Management (ISM) reported on Monday that the manufacturing PMI grew to 52.2 in March, marking the first uptick since 2022.

The most substantial economic data came with the release of the March jobs reports from the US and Canada.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the US economy added 303k jobs in March, with a downgrade to the previous month's numbers from 275k to 270k. Additionally, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8%, while wage growth showed a 4.1% increase during the month.

Despite recent layoffs by companies like Apple, Meta, and Disney, these figures suggest the job market remains robust, hinting that the Federal Reserve might maintain its current stance for at least two more meetings.

In Canada, the unemployment rate rose from 5.8% in February to 6.1% in March as the nation lost 2.2k jobs compared to the previous month's gain of 40.7k jobs.

Rapidly falling inflation in Canada might prompt the Bank of Canada to cut rates even before the Federal Reserve, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropping to 2.8% in February from 8.1% in June 2021.