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Unemployment Up in February in Canada

Another confusing message from Stats Canada on Friday, with Employment staying the same (year over year) however, unemployment is up 0.2% (year over year, seasonally adjusted). The more unemployed is actually attributable to a believable reason, more folks are looking for jobs last month, even though there are more employed folks (confused? don’t worry I am many times, and I have a Math degree).

The optimistic statement in the report was:

Compared with February 2014, full-time employment rose by 121,000 (+0.8%), while there was little change in part-time work. Over the same period, the total number of hours worked was up slightly (+0.2%).

An economy that creates more full-time jobs is healthier.

Total Employment
Total Employment for the Past Little While

The other question is, where are the folks who weren’t looking for a job, coming from? Let us check the unemployment rate first, then there is another telling statement in the report.

Unemployment Rate in Canada
Unemployment Rate for the Past 5 Years

So, who was looking for jobs?

While youth employment was virtually unchanged in February, their unemployment rate rose 0.5 percentage points to 13.3% as more youths looked for work.

More jobs for old folk over 55 too, shows the cracks in the recovery, which is youth unemployment. Old folk (such as myself) staying employed is fine, but youth unemployment is a very bad thing. That should be the biggest question in the coming election, but I somehow doubt it will be.

Employment by Age

Have a look at this table and see where the jobs are by age

Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted

 January
2015
February
2015
Std
Err
Jan to
Feb 2015
Feb 2014
to Feb 2015
Jan to Feb
2015
Feb
2014 to Feb
2015
 thousands (except rates)change in thousands (except rates)% change
Both sexes, 15 years and over       
Population29,139.229,160.721.5305.60.11.1

Labour force

19,148.419,197.629.049.291.30.30.5

Employment

17,886.917,885.928.7-1.0129.90.00.7

Full-time

14,454.214,488.239.234.0121.10.20.8

Part-time

3,432.73,397.836.1-34.98.9-1.00.3

Unemployment

1,261.51,311.724.650.2-38.64.0-2.9
Participation rate65.765.80.10.1-0.4
Unemployment rate6.66.80.10.2-0.3
Employment rate61.461.30.1-0.1-0.2
Part-time rate19.219.00.2-0.2-0.1
Youths, 15 to 24 years       
Population4,451.44,446.9-4.5-42.5-0.1-0.9
Labour force2,860.52,870.916.910.419.70.40.7
Employment2,495.62,488.415.6-7.228.4-0.31.2
Full-time1,286.51,266.218.8-20.3-16.9-1.6-1.3
Part-time1,209.11,222.119.813.045.21.13.8
Unemployment364.9382.614.517.7-8.64.9-2.2
Participation rate64.364.60.40.31.1
Unemployment rate12.813.30.50.5-0.4
Employment rate56.156.00.3-0.11.2
Part-time rate48.449.10.70.71.3
Men, 25 years and over       
Population12,074.812,087.512.7169.90.11.4
Labour force8,636.18,674.015.337.978.80.40.9
Employment8,137.58,139.516.52.091.10.01.1
Full-time7,455.47,497.221.941.890.10.61.2
Part-time682.1642.317.9-39.81.0-5.80.2
Unemployment498.6534.514.335.9-12.37.2-2.2
Participation rate71.571.80.10.3-0.3
Unemployment rate5.86.20.20.4-0.2
Employment rate67.467.30.1-0.1-0.2
Part-time rate8.47.90.2-0.5-0.1
Women, 25 years and over       
Population12,613.112,626.213.1178.10.11.4
Labour force7,651.77,652.716.51.0-7.20.0-0.1
Employment7,253.77,258.116.04.410.50.10.1
Full-time5,712.25,724.724.912.547.80.20.8
Part-time1,541.51,533.423.7-8.1-37.3-0.5-2.4
Unemployment398.0394.613.2-3.4-17.7-0.9-4.3
Participation rate60.760.60.1-0.1-0.9
Unemployment rate5.25.20.20.0-0.2
Employment rate57.557.50.10.0-0.7
Part-time rate21.321.10.3-0.1-0.5

not applicable

  1. Average standard error for change in two consecutive months. See “Sampling variability of estimates” in the section “About the Labour Force Survey” at the end of the publication Labour Force Information(Catalogue number71-001-X) for further explanations.

Note(s):

The sum of individual categories may not always add up to the total as a result of rounding.

Source(s):

CANSIM table 282-0087.

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