Our good friends at Stats Canada published on Friday the Labor Force Survey for June 2011, and in it was some better news than what ou friends south of the boarder received. Â Our Employment numbers edged up a little and our unemployment remained steady, which is better than seeing an increase in unemployment.
Employment rose for the third consecutive month, up 28,000 in June. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.4% as the number of people participating in the labour market increased. Over the past 12 months, employment has grown by 238,000 (+1.4%).
Having 1/4 of a million more Canadians working in the last year is a good thing, but again, these are not all full time jobs, so the numbers are a little deceiving.
The graph makes things seem much rosier, does it not?
Always some interesting arguments in the data when it is published, there is a statement:
Increases in the number of employees working in the public and private sectors were tempered by a decline in the number of self-employed. Over the past 12 months, public sector employment rose by 2.5%, private sector employment was up 1.5%, while the number of self-employed was little changed.
Which is interesting because if self-employed folks find full time positions them losing their self-employed job and taking on a full time job ends up being a bit of a wash, really.
A heartening tid bit of information is that the growth from May to June is in the area of Women aged 25 to 54, which is good to hear (although it would be better to hear that employment growth was across the board).
Glad to also see that the Private Sector is starting to build it’s employment numbers:
Over the past 12 months, employment has grown 2.5% in the public sector (+87,000). Over the same period, private sector employment increased by 1.5% (+159,000), while the number of self-employed was little changed.
The more jobs in the private sector the better for our current economy, I believe we have enough civil servants these days (speaking as one, myself).
The Big Table
As my regular readers know, I love publishing some of the larger tables of data our friends at Stats Canada publish, it always shows a little more than what our friends in the “regular media” like to show.
Table 1Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted
| May 2011 | June 2011 | May to June 2011 |
June 2010 to June 2011 |
May to June 2011 |
June 2010 to June 2011 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) | % change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 27,949.0 | 27,975.7 | 26.7 | 328.3 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Labour force | 18,682.7 | 18,724.7 | 42.0 | 161.9 | 0.2 | 0.9 |
| Employment | 17,308.7 | 17,337.1 | 28.4 | 237.5 | 0.2 | 1.4 |
| Full-time | 13,983.8 | 13,991.1 | 7.3 | 205.0 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Part-time | 3,324.9 | 3,346.0 | 21.1 | 32.4 | 0.6 | 1.0 |
| Unemployment | 1,374.1 | 1,387.6 | 13.5 | -75.5 | 1.0 | -5.2 |
| Participation rate | 66.8 | 66.9 | 0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.4 | 7.4 | 0.0 | -0.5 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.9 | 62.0 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 19.2 | 19.3 | 0.1 | -0.1 | … | Â … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,458.1 | 4,457.6 | -0.5 | -2.9 | 0.0 | -0.1 |
| Labour force | 2,876.2 | 2,892.2 | 16.0 | -12.3 | 0.6 | -0.4 |
| Employment | 2,477.6 | 2,479.4 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Full-time | 1,295.7 | 1,321.3 | 25.6 | 40.5 | 2.0 | 3.2 |
| Part-time | 1,182.0 | 1,158.1 | -23.9 | -40.3 | -2.0 | -3.4 |
| Unemployment | 398.6 | 412.8 | 14.2 | -12.5 | 3.6 | -2.9 |
| Participation rate | 64.5 | 64.9 | 0.4 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 13.9 | 14.3 | 0.4 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 55.6 | 55.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 47.7 | 46.7 | -1.0 | -1.6 | … | Â … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,492.6 | 11,506.4 | 13.8 | 165.1 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Labour force | 8,385.3 | 8,388.7 | 3.4 | 86.2 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Employment | 7,856.8 | 7,857.2 | 0.4 | 143.2 | 0.0 | 1.9 |
| Full-time | 7,232.7 | 7,220.1 | -12.6 | 101.1 | -0.2 | 1.4 |
| Part-time | 624.1 | 637.1 | 13.0 | 42.0 | 2.1 | 7.1 |
| Unemployment | 528.5 | 531.5 | 3.0 | -57.0 | 0.6 | -9.7 |
| Participation rate | 73.0 | 72.9 | -0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.3 | 6.3 | 0.0 | -0.8 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.4 | 68.3 | -0.1 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.9 | 8.1 | 0.2 | 0.4 | … | Â … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,998.2 | 12,011.7 | 13.5 | 166.1 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 7,421.2 | 7,443.8 | 22.6 | 88.1 | 0.3 | 1.2 |
| Employment | 6,974.2 | 7,000.5 | 26.3 | 94.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 |
| Full-time | 5,455.4 | 5,449.7 | -5.7 | 63.3 | -0.1 | 1.2 |
| Part-time | 1,518.8 | 1,550.8 | 32.0 | 30.7 | 2.1 | 2.0 |
| Unemployment | 447.0 | 443.3 | -3.7 | -6.0 | -0.8 | -1.3 |
| Participation rate | 61.9 | 62.0 | 0.1 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.0 | 6.0 | 0.0 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.1 | 58.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 21.8 | 22.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | … | Â … |
