Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Personal Finances and Consumer Concerns, essays, stories, examples and how to articles with a distinctly Canadian Point of View
September 12th, 2011

Employment Stalling in Canada (August 2011)

So on Friday we learned that the Canadian economy’s ability to create jobs is starting to stall (not good news for Canada, or for Ontario’s provincial government).

In the past 12 months, employment has grown by 1.3% (+223,000), primarily in Ontario and Alberta, and among private sector employees. Over this period, full-time employment increased 2.2% (+300,000), part-time work declined 2.3% (-77,000) and total actual hours worked rose by 2.6%.

While overall this is good news the fact that in the past month, unemployment has ticked up, and employment is holding steady, means really no new jobs. Canada has been somewhat insulated from the failure to recovery that happened in the U.S. (OK some call it a double dip recession), hopefully this is not a shape of things to come moment for us.

Employment Graph for Canada Past Little While

I have noticed a great number of folks in the 20-25 years age group that are having a lot of problems finding jobs in the Ottawa region. They end up getting multiple part time jobs, but none of them pay enough for them to thrive and succeed (but this is only a personal observation, I may be wrong). This lack of hope for lack of a better term is a concern for the future.

Unemployment Graph for Canada in Past Little While

Unemployment “ticking up” 0.1% is never a good thing to see either.

The Big Table

For my regular readers, you know how much I love the detailed numbers, so here is one of the many big tables from Stats Canada that you should invest some time having a look at:

Labour force characteristics by age and sex - Seasonally adjusted

July 2011 August 2011 July to August
2011
August 2010
to August 2011
July to
August 2011
August 2010
to August 2011
thousands (except rates) change in thousands (except rates) % change
Both sexes, 15 years and over
Population 28,002.1 28,032.7 30.6 322.0 0.1 1.2
Labour force 18,696.1 18,706.6 10.5 84.6 0.1 0.5
Employment 17,344.2 17,338.7 -5.5 222.9 0.0 1.3
Full-time 14,016.6 14,042.3 25.7 300.2 0.2 2.2
Part-time 3,327.6 3,296.4 -31.2 -77.3 -0.9 -2.3
Unemployment 1,351.9 1,367.9 16.0 -138.3 1.2 -9.2
Participation rate 66.8 66.7 -0.1 -0.5
Unemployment rate 7.2 7.3 0.1 -0.8
Employment rate 61.9 61.9 0.0 0.1
Part-time rate 19.2 19.0 -0.2 -0.7  …
Youths, 15 to 24 years
Population 4,457.6 4,457.6 0.0 -3.6 0.0 -0.1
Labour force 2,890.6 2,882.3 -8.3 -6.5 -0.3 -0.2
Employment 2,481.7 2,478.8 -2.9 13.6 -0.1 0.6
Full-time 1,299.1 1,295.2 -3.9 30.3 -0.3 2.4
Part-time 1,182.7 1,183.5 0.8 -16.8 0.1 -1.4
Unemployment 408.9 403.6 -5.3 -20.0 -1.3 -4.7
Participation rate 64.8 64.7 -0.1 -0.1
Unemployment rate 14.1 14.0 -0.1 -0.7
Employment rate 55.7 55.6 -0.1 0.3
Part-time rate 47.7 47.7 0.0 -1.0  …
Men, 25 years and over
Population 11,519.5 11,534.7 15.2 162.5 0.1 1.4
Labour force 8,378.5 8,386.1 7.6 36.5 0.1 0.4
Employment 7,863.7 7,856.2 -7.5 120.4 -0.1 1.6
Full-time 7,254.2 7,253.6 -0.6 130.8 0.0 1.8
Part-time 609.5 602.6 -6.9 -10.5 -1.1 -1.7
Unemployment 514.8 529.9 15.1 -83.9 2.9 -13.7
Participation rate 72.7 72.7 0.0 -0.7
Unemployment rate 6.1 6.3 0.2 -1.1
Employment rate 68.3 68.1 -0.2 0.1
Part-time rate 7.8 7.7 -0.1 -0.2  …
Women, 25 years and over
Population 12,025.0 12,040.4 15.4 163.1 0.1 1.4
Labour force 7,427.1 7,438.1 11.0 54.5 0.1 0.7
Employment 6,998.8 7,003.7 4.9 88.9 0.1 1.3
Full-time 5,463.3 5,493.5 30.2 139.0 0.6 2.6
Part-time 1,535.5 1,510.2 -25.3 -50.1 -1.6 -3.2
Unemployment 428.3 434.3 6.0 -34.6 1.4 -7.4
Participation rate 61.8 61.8 0.0 -0.4
Unemployment rate 5.8 5.8 0.0 -0.6
Employment rate 58.2 58.2 0.0 0.0
Part-time rate 21.9 21.6 -0.3 -1.0  …

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4 Responses to “Employment Stalling in Canada (August 2011)”

  1. Great info – it’s definitely a concern that we’re heading into a recession – a REAL big one. Makes you think what you need to do to take control of your finances…

  2. I didn’t know the US wasn’t the only country going through this. Hopefully things will be fixed soon :-\

  3. [...] Cajun Man at THE Canadian Personal Finance Site presents Employment Stalling in Canada in August, saying “While some think the Canadian Economy is recovering, sometimes data comes out that [...]

  4. [...] Tom over at Canadian Finance hosted the Canadian Carnival of Finance #54 which included my article Employment Stalling in Canada in August 2011 [...]

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