Stats Canada put out their numbers for November on Friday and they were much rosier than expected and better than our friends down south as well.
Employment rose by 79,000 in November, bringing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 8.5%. Despite November’s gain, employment was 321,000 (-1.9%) below the peak of October 2008.
Hey let’s not get over the top here, more people employed is a good thing!
The numbers are quite interesting to browse (if you click on the graph you’ll go to the Stats Can original info), but the one thing I liked seeing was:
Most of the gain in overall employment in November was among women aged 25 to 54 (+51,000) and men aged 55 and over (+17,000).
Hooray for us old guys!!! You young ladies keep plunking away too!
Unemployment Down
This month the number crunchers got the unemployment numbers to go down (which is not always the case even when employment numbers are UP).
Down only 0.1 percent, but it’s a good thing considering our friends to the south are celebrating their increase is not quite as big!
A Big Table
Here we are by sector, an interesting hunk of info. The area to look at is Finance, insurance, real estate and leasing, which means the financial sector is rebounding nicely… is that a good thing is the question?
| October 2009 | November 2009 | Oct to Nov 2009 | Nov 2008 to Nov 2009 | Oct to Nov 2009 | Nov 2008 to Nov 2009 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | ||||||
| thousands | change in thousands | % change | ||||
| Class of worker | ||||||
| Employees | 14,039.8 | 14,150.9 | 111.1 | -324.8 | 0.8 | -2.2 |
| Self-employed | 2,755.0 | 2,723.0 | -32.0 | 67.3 | -1.2 | 2.5 |
| Public/private sector employees | ||||||
| Public | 3,407.4 | 3,461.7 | 54.3 | 35.4 | 1.6 | 1.0 |
| Private | 10,632.3 | 10,689.2 | 56.9 | -360.3 | 0.5 | -3.3 |
| All industries | 16,794.8 | 16,873.9 | 79.1 | -257.5 | 0.5 | -1.5 |
| Goods-producing sector | 3,708.3 | 3,714.5 | 6.2 | -295.5 | 0.2 | -7.4 |
| Agriculture | 321.9 | 317.8 | -4.1 | 0.3 | -1.3 | 0.1 |
| Natural resources | 301.7 | 307.5 | 5.8 | -37.4 | 1.9 | -10.8 |
| Utilities | 149.9 | 148.9 | -1.0 | -1.5 | -0.7 | -1.0 |
| Construction | 1,178.0 | 1,170.8 | -7.2 | -85.0 | -0.6 | -6.8 |
| Manufacturing | 1,756.8 | 1,769.4 | 12.6 | -171.9 | 0.7 | -8.9 |
| Services-producing sector | 13,086.4 | 13,159.4 | 73.0 | 38.0 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Trade | 2,632.1 | 2,632.1 | 0.0 | -38.4 | 0.0 | -1.4 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 819.9 | 818.3 | -1.6 | -26.6 | -0.2 | -3.1 |
| Finance, insurance, real estate and leasing | 1,118.0 | 1,130.2 | 12.2 | 56.9 | 1.1 | 5.3 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 1,196.9 | 1,206.9 | 10.0 | -11.6 | 0.8 | -1.0 |
| Business, building and other support services | 639.0 | 641.3 | 2.3 | -22.8 | 0.4 | -3.4 |
| Educational services | 1,196.5 | 1,234.4 | 37.9 | 40.7 | 3.2 | 3.4 |
| Health care and social assistance | 1,955.1 | 1,959.2 | 4.1 | 20.9 | 0.2 | 1.1 |
| Information, culture and recreation | 785.1 | 781.8 | -3.3 | 25.3 | -0.4 | 3.3 |
| Accommodation and food services | 1,034.5 | 1,040.8 | 6.3 | -32.4 | 0.6 | -3.0 |
| Other services | 785.5 | 779.5 | -6.0 | 16.9 | -0.8 | 2.2 |
| Public administration | 923.8 | 935.1 | 11.3 | 9.2 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
Previous Months Unemployment for 2009
- Unemployment Up Sharply to 7.2% in January 2009 the impact of the great meltdown was starting to settle in.
- Bad Unemployment and No Pensions for February 2009 things were very not good back then.
- Unemployment Up Again to 8.0% March 2009 not too surprising really. March was still deep in the heart of the meltdown.
- Unemployment Up a Bit for April 2009 so these are the actual Unemployed count from Stats Canada
- More Folks on EI in April 2009 – a sad time still
- Unemployment Numbers up a Little – The numbers for June 2009
- For July 2009 Unemployment Rate Hovers – is this a plateau? Hard to tell.
- Better Employment Numbers September 2009 – shows that life started to get better as 2009 went on. We hoped.
- Less Employed in October 2009 8.6% Unemployed – OK so our hopes were dashed for a while.
- November 2009 Employment Numbers: A Festivus Miracle! a month early for Festivus, but good news, is good news.
- Nothing New on Jobs Front for December 2009 the year did not end with a bang unfortunately.
Unemployment is such a hard thing to talk about..
I’m sure companies are still in debt up to their necks.. only after companies can repair the balance sheet will they be in a strength position to hire.
That’s going to take a while. IMO