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Not Much Change in Employment Numbers in June 2012 (in Canada)

Friday our friends from Stats Canada published their monthly Labour Force Survey for June 2012, and their news is that not much has changed. The good news is that things don’t seem worse, but they really aren’t that much better either. June being a typical time when new grads join the Labour Force, so this seems to suggest that a lot of Grads may still be looking for jobs?

The commentary from Stats Canada states:

In June, employment was little changed for the second consecutive month and the unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points to 7.2%, as fewer people searched for work.

Compared with 12 months earlier, employment increased 1.0% or 181,000. At the same time, full-time work was up 222,000 (+1.6%), while part-time work was little changed. The total number of hours worked rose 2.2%.

The happy news is that the jobs that are being found are full-time jobs (with the ensuing benefits and such (hopefully)), with 222,000 more full-time jobs year over year from last year.

The graphs from Stats Canada do still look much more optimistic:

Employment for the past little while in Canada

That is a happy looking rising curve, to show nicer employment numbers.

The unemployment graph is also showing a little bit of happiness too:

Unemployment over the past little while

The problem with the graphic is that the commentary points out that the reason unemployment is dropping is because fewer people are looking for jobs, which is disheartening.

In my family my oldest is still on the job hunt, and it is worrisome, because I know a few new grads and the ones that have jobs are not working where they want (which is better than being unemployed, but still makes me wonder). When will all those Baby Boomers start leaving the work force opening up room for the younger folks? Wait a minute I think I am in that group…

The Big Table

I love knowing all the data (being a mathematician), so I always make sure I include at least one of the big tables supplied by Stats Canada (go check them all out, they are quite enlightening):

Table 1 Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted

May 2012 June 2012 May to
June 2012
June 2011 to
June 2012
May to
June 2012
June 2011 to
June 2012
thousands (except rates) change in thousands
(except rates)
% change
Both sexes, 15 years and over
Population 28,271.6 28,301.3 29.7 325.6 0.1 1.2
Labour force 18,881.0 18,864.2 -16.8 149.0 -0.1 0.8
Employment 17,502.4 17,509.7 7.3 181.1 0.0 1.0
Full-time 14,173.3 14,202.6 29.3 221.5 0.2 1.6
Part-time 3,329.1 3,307.1 -22.0 -40.4 -0.7 -1.2
Unemployment 1,378.6 1,354.5 -24.1 -32.1 -1.7 -2.3
Participation rate 66.8 66.7 -0.1 -0.2
Unemployment rate 7.3 7.2 -0.1 -0.2
Employment rate 61.9 61.9 0.0 0.0
Part-time rate 19.0 18.9 -0.1 -0.4
Youths, 15 to 24 years
Population 4,457.3 4,457.5 0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.0
Labour force 2,843.6 2,859.7 16.1 -33.3 0.6 -1.2
Employment 2,436.1 2,436.9 0.8 -43.0 0.0 -1.7
Full-time 1,280.3 1,284.4 4.1 -33.1 0.3 -2.5
Part-time 1,155.8 1,152.5 -3.3 -9.9 -0.3 -0.9
Unemployment 407.5 422.8 15.3 9.7 3.8 2.3
Participation rate 63.8 64.2 0.4 -0.7
Unemployment rate 14.3 14.8 0.5 0.5
Employment rate 54.7 54.7 0.0 -0.9
Part-time rate 47.4 47.3 -0.1 0.4
Men, 25 years and over
Population 11,653.9 11,668.8 14.9 162.4 0.1 1.4
Labour force 8,503.0 8,480.2 -22.8 94.7 -0.3 1.1
Employment 7,973.8 7,962.7 -11.1 110.4 -0.1 1.4
Full-time 7,364.3 7,362.7 -1.6 142.1 0.0 2.0
Part-time 609.6 600.0 -9.6 -31.8 -1.6 -5.0
Unemployment 529.2 517.5 -11.7 -15.6 -2.2 -2.9
Participation rate 73.0 72.7 -0.3 -0.2
Unemployment rate 6.2 6.1 -0.1 -0.3
Employment rate 68.4 68.2 -0.2 0.0
Part-time rate 7.6 7.5 -0.1 -0.5
Women, 25 years and over
Population 12,160.4 12,175.0 14.6 163.3 0.1 1.4
Labour force 7,534.4 7,524.4 -10.0 87.7 -0.1 1.2
Employment 7,092.5 7,110.1 17.6 113.7 0.2 1.6
Full-time 5,528.7 5,555.5 26.8 112.5 0.5 2.1
Part-time 1,563.8 1,554.6 -9.2 1.2 -0.6 0.1
Unemployment 441.9 414.2 -27.7 -26.2 -6.3 -5.9
Participation rate 62.0 61.8 -0.2 -0.1
Unemployment rate 5.9 5.5 -0.4 -0.4
Employment rate 58.3 58.4 0.1 0.2
Part-time rate 22.0 21.9 -0.1 -0.3
not applicable
Note(s): 
Related CANSIM table 282-0087.

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