Our friends at Stats Canada published the Labour Force Survey for May 2012, which shows not much change in terms of Employment or Unemployment, so I guess the Canadian Economy took a break to catch its breath (to sound optimistic)?
Following two months of large gains, employment was unchanged in May, and the unemployment rate remained at 7.3%.
Compared with 12 months earlier, employment increased 1.2% or 203,000. Virtually all of this growth was in full-time work, up 192,000 (+1.4%). The total number of hours worked rose 1.3% over the same period.
The good news is growth continues in full-time jobs, which is really good (full-time workers pay taxes and hopefully have benefits packages too). So even though we didn’t do much last month, year over year, we added 203,000 jobs, so that is a good thing.
It’s hard to be gloomy with a nice graph like that (all sloping up and such, it’s like a crooked smile).
For those who want to see the glass half-empty point of view (i.e. unemployment), here is that graph:
Not really as optimistic-looking, not dropping that fast, but still better than nothing. Remember that Unemployment and Employment are not as closely correlated as you might think (check out the Stats Canada site for that explanation; I don’t agree with it, but it’s their data, so I don’t get to complain (too much) about it either).
A Big Table
Yes, I love those big tables from Statistics Canada, since the data says a great deal about the data. My favourite table from this data set is employment by age, which I’ve included for your perusal.
Labour force characteristics by age and sex Seasonally adjusted
| April 2012 | May 2012 | April to May 2012 | May 2011 to May 2012 | April to May 2012 | May 2011 to May 2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) | % change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 28,242.0 | 28,271.6 | 29.6 | 322.6 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Labour force | 18,865.3 | 18,881.0 | 15.7 | 206.4 | 0.1 | 1.1 |
| Employment | 17,494.7 | 17,502.4 | 7.7 | 203.4 | 0.0 | 1.2 |
| Full-time | 14,171.9 | 14,173.3 | 1.4 | 192.2 | 0.0 | 1.4 |
| Part-time | 3,322.8 | 3,329.1 | 6.3 | 11.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Unemployment | 1,370.6 | 1,378.6 | 8.0 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 |
| Participation rate | 66.8 | 66.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.3 | 7.3 | 0.0 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.9 | 61.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 19.0 | 19.0 | 0.0 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,457.2 | 4,457.3 | 0.1 | -0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Labour force | 2,842.2 | 2,843.6 | 1.4 | -39.2 | 0.0 | -1.4 |
| Employment | 2,448.0 | 2,436.1 | -11.9 | -45.8 | -0.5 | -1.8 |
| Full-time | 1,291.7 | 1,280.3 | -11.4 | -20.6 | -0.9 | -1.6 |
| Part-time | 1,156.4 | 1,155.8 | -0.6 | -25.2 | -0.1 | -2.1 |
| Unemployment | 394.2 | 407.5 | 13.3 | 6.6 | 3.4 | 1.6 |
| Participation rate | 63.8 | 63.8 | 0.0 | -0.9 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 13.9 | 14.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 54.9 | 54.7 | -0.2 | -1.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 47.2 | 47.4 | 0.2 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,639.1 | 11,653.9 | 14.8 | 161.3 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 8,495.0 | 8,503.0 | 8.0 | 125.6 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Employment | 7,954.6 | 7,973.8 | 19.2 | 128.5 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| Full-time | 7,343.1 | 7,364.3 | 21.2 | 137.7 | 0.3 | 1.9 |
| Part-time | 611.5 | 609.6 | -1.9 | -9.1 | -0.3 | -1.5 |
| Unemployment | 540.3 | 529.2 | -11.1 | -2.9 | -2.1 | -0.5 |
| Participation rate | 73.0 | 73.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.4 | 6.2 | -0.2 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.3 | 68.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.7 | 7.6 | -0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 12,145.7 | 12,160.4 | 14.7 | 162.2 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 7,528.1 | 7,534.4 | 6.3 | 119.9 | 0.1 | 1.6 |
| Employment | 7,092.0 | 7,092.5 | 0.5 | 120.7 | 0.0 | 1.7 |
| Full-time | 5,537.1 | 5,528.7 | -8.4 | 75.1 | -0.2 | 1.4 |
| Part-time | 1,554.9 | 1,563.8 | 8.9 | 45.6 | 0.6 | 3.0 |
| Unemployment | 436.1 | 441.9 | 5.8 | -0.7 | 1.3 | -0.2 |
| Participation rate | 62.0 | 62.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 5.8 | 5.9 | 0.1 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.4 | 58.3 | -0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 21.9 | 22.0 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
Employment Numbers 2012
- More Working and Higher Unemployment in April (2012)! Compared with 12 months earlier, employment was up 1.2% or 214,000. All of the growth over the 12 months was in full-time work, up 217,000 (+1.6%), while part-time employment was unchanged. The total number of hours worked rose 1.5% over the same period.
- Employment for May 2012 About the Same? Compared with 12 months earlier, employment increased 1.2% or 203,000. Virtually all of this growth was in full-time work, up 192,000 (+1.4%). Total hours worked rose 1.3% over the same period.
- Leaking Part-time Jobs in July 2012 in Canada is not a good thing over the summer
- More Jobs in August in Canada? Hot Dang! Good news is always good.
- Employment Boost in September in Canada continued; good news
Thanks for the positive spin on things! Here on the east coast people are only talking about EI reforms and how it will affect the seasonal worker.
Adding more full-time jobs however is always a positive.