Not only was there good news in the United States last week, on Friday last week our amigos at Stats Canada published some very heartening news about the Canadian Labour Force Survey for September 2012.
Luckily for political pundits (and financial bloggers) the message is mixed again this month from Stats Canada:
Employment increased for the second consecutive month in September, up 52,000, mainly in full-time work. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 7.4% as more people participated in the labour market.
WTF? Yes, we have another month where even though there are more jobs, more people working, but because more people are looking Unemployment went up as well? Statistics are wonderful that way, I guess (speaking as a holder of a Bachelor of Math (NOT in statistics)).
Doesn’t that graph make you want to do cartwheels of delight reading it? It’s going up, more people are working, more are paying taxes, isn’t life grand?!?
However, if you then look at this graph:
Unemployment is up too?WTF?, well not really, but it is important to remember that the gross number of people working is a good number, whereas the number of folks without jobs is a harder number to track.
Lots of increase in retail and construction, so I guess that is good. Retail tends to be a little transitory in terms of jobs (i.e. these really aren’t career jobs, more like the “any job” that folks need to get by). Construction means more things are being built, which is good, time will tell if this is a key stat to watch.
The Big Table
As usual Stats Canada has a bunch of data to read (and I really encourage you to go look at all of the data), but I have including the data for employment gains by age.
Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted
| August 2012 | September 2012 | Aug to Sept 2012 | Sept 2011 to Sept 2012 | August to Sept 2012 | Sept 2011 to Sept 2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) | % change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 28,362.9 | 28,388.3 | 25.4 | 331.2 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Labour force | 18,886.9 | 18,959.5 | 72.6 | 222.1 | 0.4 | 1.2 |
| Employment | 17,513.6 | 17,565.7 | 52.1 | 174.5 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
| Full-time | 14,211.4 | 14,255.5 | 44.1 | 156.8 | 0.3 | 1.1 |
| Part-time | 3,302.2 | 3,310.2 | 8.0 | 17.7 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| Unemployment | 1,373.3 | 1,393.8 | 20.5 | 47.6 | 1.5 | 3.5 |
| Participation rate | 66.6 | 66.8 | 0.2 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.3 | 7.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.7 | 61.9 | 0.2 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 18.9 | 18.8 | -0.1 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,458.1 | 4,457.6 | -0.5 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Labour force | 2,822.5 | 2,843.0 | 20.5 | -51.2 | 0.7 | -1.8 |
| Employment | 2,405.7 | 2,417.7 | 12.0 | -69.9 | 0.5 | -2.8 |
| Full-time | 1,269.5 | 1,270.9 | 1.4 | -18.0 | 0.1 | -1.4 |
| Part-time | 1,136.2 | 1,146.8 | 10.6 | -51.9 | 0.9 | -4.3 |
| Unemployment | 416.8 | 425.3 | 8.5 | 18.7 | 2.0 | 4.6 |
| Participation rate | 63.3 | 63.8 | 0.5 | -1.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 14.8 | 15.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 54.0 | 54.2 | 0.2 | -1.6 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 47.2 | 47.4 | 0.2 | -0.8 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,699.5 | 11,712.6 | 13.1 | 165.7 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 8,512.9 | 8,548.5 | 35.6 | 151.3 | 0.4 | 1.8 |
| Employment | 7,979.1 | 8,005.8 | 26.7 | 126.0 | 0.3 | 1.6 |
| Full-time | 7,357.4 | 7,398.6 | 41.2 | 116.2 | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| Part-time | 621.7 | 607.2 | -14.5 | 9.7 | -2.3 | 1.6 |
| Unemployment | 533.8 | 542.7 | 8.9 | 25.3 | 1.7 | 4.9 |
| Participation rate | 72.8 | 73.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.3 | 6.3 | 0.0 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.2 | 68.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.8 | 7.6 | -0.2 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 12,205.3 | 12,218.1 | 12.8 | 165.2 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 7,551.5 | 7,568.0 | 16.5 | 122.0 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| Employment | 7,128.9 | 7,142.2 | 13.3 | 118.4 | 0.2 | 1.7 |
| Full-time | 5,584.6 | 5,586.0 | 1.4 | 58.5 | 0.0 | 1.1 |
| Part-time | 1,544.3 | 1,556.1 | 11.8 | 59.8 | 0.8 | 4.0 |
| Unemployment | 422.6 | 425.8 | 3.2 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| Participation rate | 61.9 | 61.9 | 0.0 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 5.6 | 5.6 | 0.0 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.4 | 58.5 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 21.7 | 21.8 | 0.1 | 0.5 | … | … |
