Our friends at Stats Canada published their Labour Survey for February 2013 on Friday and put out some better news for the Canadian economy. Thanks to more folks out on the job hunt, this increase in employment wasn’t really reflected in the unemployment rate, which stayed at 7.0% (unfortunately).
The employment graph shows more reasons to be optimistic:
While the unemployment numbers didn’t get better they didn’t really get worse either, so I guess seeing a flat line on the curve is “no news”:
I guess it could be worse?
The one section I always read is the analysis by age section and it continues to be quite telling (in my opinion):
Among people aged 55 and over, employment increased for the second consecutive month, up 32,000 in February and mostly among men. Compared with 12 months earlier, employment among people in this age group rose by 171,000 (+5.4%), partly a result of population ageing.
While employment among people aged 25 to 54 was little changed in February, it was up by 116,000 (+1.0%) on a year-over-year basis.
Among youths aged 15 to 24, employment was little changed in February and the unemployment rate was 13.6%. Employment among youths has been on a slight upward trend since August 2012.
The lost generationâ„¢ in terms of employment continues to find it hard to find jobs (unemployment of 13.6% is pretty darn horrible), I think it is because all those old farts (like yours truly) are hanging around, and should give up some of our cushy jobs?
The Big Table
As usual I include one of the full data tables from Stats Canada, but you should go over to the Stats Canada site and look at all of these tables, not just get your info from know-it-all bloggers or media talking heads:
Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted
| January 2013 | February 2013 | Jan to Feb 2013 | Feb 2012 to Feb 2013 | Jan to Feb 2013 | Feb 2012 to Feb 2013 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) | % change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
|
Population |
28,501.2 | 28,526.3 | 25.1 | 345.4 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Labour force | 18,968.5 | 19,028.9 | 60.4 | 290.3 | 0.3 | 1.5 |
| Employment | 17,645.7 | 17,696.4 | 50.7 | 336.2 | 0.3 | 1.9 |
| Full-time | 14,339.4 | 14,373.0 | 33.6 | 308.5 | 0.2 | 2.2 |
| Part-time | 3,306.2 | 3,323.4 | 17.2 | 27.6 | 0.5 | 0.8 |
| Unemployment | 1,322.8 | 1,332.6 | 9.8 | -45.8 | 0.7 | -3.3 |
| Participation rate | 66.6 | 66.7 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.0 | 7.0 | 0.0 | -0.4 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.9 | 62.0 | 0.1 | 0.4 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 18.7 | 18.8 | 0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,454.7 | 4,453.8 | -0.9 | -2.4 | 0.0 | -0.1 |
| Labour force | 2,831.5 | 2,843.4 | 11.9 | 22.5 | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| Employment | 2,449.4 | 2,456.8 | 7.4 | 48.8 | 0.3 | 2.0 |
| Full-time | 1,301.0 | 1,283.3 | -17.7 | 13.1 | -1.4 | 1.0 |
| Part-time | 1,148.3 | 1,173.5 | 25.2 | 35.7 | 2.2 | 3.1 |
| Unemployment | 382.1 | 386.6 | 4.5 | -26.3 | 1.2 | -6.4 |
| Participation rate | 63.6 | 63.8 | 0.2 | 0.5 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 13.5 | 13.6 | 0.1 | -1.0 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 55.0 | 55.2 | 0.2 | 1.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 46.9 | 47.8 | 0.9 | 0.5 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,770.7 | 11,783.7 | 13.0 | 174.4 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Labour force | 8,544.5 | 8,556.8 | 12.3 | 128.0 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Employment | 8,021.3 | 8,047.2 | 25.9 | 144.8 | 0.3 | 1.8 |
| Full-time | 7,418.2 | 7,448.3 | 30.1 | 162.5 | 0.4 | 2.2 |
| Part-time | 603.0 | 598.9 | -4.1 | -17.7 | -0.7 | -2.9 |
| Unemployment | 523.2 | 509.6 | -13.6 | -16.8 | -2.6 | -3.2 |
| Participation rate | 72.6 | 72.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.1 | 6.0 | -0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.1 | 68.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.5 | 7.4 | -0.1 | -0.4 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 12,275.8 | 12,288.9 | 13.1 | 173.5 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 7,592.5 | 7,628.7 | 36.2 | 139.9 | 0.5 | 1.9 |
| Employment | 7,175.0 | 7,192.3 | 17.3 | 142.5 | 0.2 | 2.0 |
| Full-time | 5,620.2 | 5,641.3 | 21.1 | 132.8 | 0.4 | 2.4 |
| Part-time | 1,554.9 | 1,551.0 | -3.9 | 9.6 | -0.3 | 0.6 |
| Unemployment | 417.5 | 436.3 | 18.8 | -2.7 | 4.5 | -0.6 |
| Participation rate | 61.8 | 62.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 5.5 | 5.7 | 0.2 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.4 | 58.5 | 0.1 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 21.7 | 21.6 | -0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
