On Friday our friends at Stats Canada published their Labour Force Survey for November 2011, which brought not good, but not too bad news, with unemployment rising (again) this month. Canada lost 19,000 jobs last month, but as usual there is always fun with numbers from Stats Canada which also stated:
Despite the recent declines, employment was up 1.2% (+212,000) from 12 months earlier.
A decline of 53,000 in part-time work was partially offset by an increase of 35,000 in full-time. Compared with a year earlier, the number of part-time workers was down 1.9% (-62,000), while full-time employment grew by 2.0% (+274,000). Over the same period, the total number of hours worked increased at the same rate as total employment (+1.2%).
Funny isn’t it, how even with a drop there can be an increase? I love this kind of dichotomy in numbers.  The other interesting point is to see a large drop in part-time jobs, however an increase in part-time jobs, which I think is good news. My guess would be there will be an increase in December for part-time jobs, but maybe I am being optimistic.
Where did these jobs appear from?
In November, there were employment losses in retail and wholesale trade, as well as business, building and other support services. These losses were partially offset by increases in “other services” (such as personal services and repair and maintenance), as well as in construction; natural resources; and utilities.
With the increase in Unemployment the following graph looks less sexy that is for sure:
The Big Table
My favorite part of this info from Stats Canada is the tables of information that they publish, so here is one of my favorite:
Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted
| Oct 2011 | Nov 2011 | Oct to Nov 2011 |
Nov 2010 to Nov 2011 |
Oct to Nov 2011 | Nov 2010 to Nov 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) | % change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 28,082.3 | 28,107.1 | 24.8 | 316.5 | 0.1 | 1.1 |
| Labour force | 18,719.9 | 18,721.7 | 1.8 | 193.6 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Employment | 17,345.6 | 17,327.0 | -18.6 | 212.1 | -0.1 | 1.2 |
| Full-time | 14,034.4 | 14,069.0 | 34.6 | 273.7 | 0.2 | 2.0 |
| Part-time | 3,311.2 | 3,257.9 | -53.3 | -61.6 | -1.6 | -1.9 |
| Unemployment | 1,374.2 | 1,394.7 | 20.5 | -18.5 | 1.5 | -1.3 |
| Participation rate | 66.7 | 66.6 | -0.1 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.3 | 7.4 | 0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.8 | 61.6 | -0.2 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 19.1 | 18.8 | -0.3 | -0.6 | … | Â … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,457.4 | 4,457.3 | -0.1 | -2.7 | 0.0 | -0.1 |
| Labour force | 2,887.5 | 2,867.3 | -20.2 | 54.2 | -0.7 | 1.9 |
| Employment | 2,479.5 | 2,461.7 | -17.8 | 31.4 | -0.7 | 1.3 |
| Full-time | 1,298.0 | 1,306.6 | 8.6 | 29.2 | 0.7 | 2.3 |
| Part-time | 1,181.5 | 1,155.2 | -26.3 | 2.3 | -2.2 | 0.2 |
| Unemployment | 408.0 | 405.6 | -2.4 | 22.7 | -0.6 | 5.9 |
| Participation rate | 64.8 | 64.3 | -0.5 | 1.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 14.1 | 14.1 | 0.0 | 0.5 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 55.6 | 55.2 | -0.4 | 0.7 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 47.7 | 46.9 | -0.8 | -0.5 | … | Â … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,559.6 | 11,572.0 | 12.4 | 159.5 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 8,398.6 | 8,383.0 | -15.6 | 45.7 | -0.2 | 0.5 |
| Employment | 7,872.2 | 7,850.2 | -22.0 | 80.0 | -0.3 | 1.0 |
| Full-time | 7,248.3 | 7,256.2 | 7.9 | 86.4 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Part-time | 623.9 | 594.0 | -29.9 | -6.4 | -4.8 | -1.1 |
| Unemployment | 526.5 | 532.8 | 6.3 | -34.3 | 1.2 | -6.0 |
| Participation rate | 72.7 | 72.4 | -0.3 | -0.7 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.3 | 6.4 | 0.1 | -0.4 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.1 | 67.8 | -0.3 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.9 | 7.6 | -0.3 | -0.1 | … | Â … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 12,065.4 | 12,077.8 | 12.4 | 159.7 | 0.1 | 1.3 |
| Labour force | 7,433.7 | 7,471.4 | 37.7 | 93.7 | 0.5 | 1.3 |
| Employment | 6,994.0 | 7,015.1 | 21.1 | 100.7 | 0.3 | 1.5 |
| Full-time | 5,488.1 | 5,506.3 | 18.2 | 158.2 | 0.3 | 3.0 |
| Part-time | 1,505.9 | 1,508.8 | 2.9 | -57.4 | 0.2 | -3.7 |
| Unemployment | 439.7 | 456.3 | 16.6 | -7.0 | 3.8 | -1.5 |
| Participation rate | 61.6 | 61.9 | 0.3 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 5.9 | 6.1 | 0.2 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.0 | 58.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 21.5 | 21.5 | 0.0 | -1.2 | … | Â … |
Of course everyone looks at the employment rates but we should all be more focused on ourselves and our own employment. It is way to hard to keep track of what is going on that in doing so we can lose sight of what we need to do. It is true that everyone wants the economy to do well, but the last thing we should be doing is filing for bankruptcy because we were too focused on what is changing so often that we cant keep track.
Very interesting statistics. It’s hard to say when things will get better, but we just have to stay optimistic.
“Funny isn’t it, how even with a drop there can be an increase? I love this kind of dichotomy in numbers.”
For me, it makes it hard to take the unemployment rate number seriously these days. I feel like I can’t take the reporting at full value until I see what impacted the change.