Our friends at Stats Canada published their Labour Survey for November 2012 and some very good news after not much news for October, there were 59,000 more employed folks in Canada in November, and the unemployment rate managed to drop by 0.2% as well (a little bit of Holiday Cheer for all of us).
Compared with 12 months earlier, employment increased 1.7% or 294,000, mostly in full-time work. Over the same period, the total number of hours worked rose 1.3%.
In November, employment increased in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island. There was little change in the other provinces.
Much more heartening news for the folks who have been looking for jobs, let us hope this up turn in good fortune in jobs continues (and that the Fiscal Cliff down south does not cause the predicted recession if they fall off it). Remember that if the U.S. coughs Canada gets a cold, and that is still very true even today.
The unemployment graph doesn’t show as nice a drop as we hope for, but at least it is much lower than a few years ago. Our friends down south also had some good news on Friday as well where they added 146,000 jobs in November.
The Big Table
As usual, I like to include one of the excellent Big Tables of data from Stats Canada about employment, and my favourite is the Employment by Age table, have a look and see how your age group is doing:
Labour force characteristics by age and sex Seasonally adjusted
| October 2012 | November 2012 | Oct to Nov 2012 | Nov 2011 to Nov 2012 | Oct to Nov 2012 | Nov 2011 to Nov 2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) | % change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 28,414.8 | 28,442.9 | 28.1 | 335.8 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Labour force | 18,977.5 | 18,996.5 | 19.0 | 265.1 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Employment | 17,567.5 | 17,626.8 | 59.3 | 293.8 | 0.3 | 1.7 |
| Full-time | 14,262.8 | 14,318.0 | 55.2 | 243.8 | 0.4 | 1.7 |
| Part-time | 3,304.7 | 3,308.8 | 4.1 | 49.9 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Unemployment | 1,410.0 | 1,369.7 | -40.3 | -28.7 | -2.9 | -2.1 |
| Participation rate | 66.8 | 66.8 | 0.0 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.4 | 7.2 | -0.2 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.8 | 62.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 18.8 | 18.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,457.1 | 4,456.5 | -0.6 | -0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Labour force | 2,834.5 | 2,833.2 | -1.3 | -30.6 | 0.0 | -1.1 |
| Employment | 2,418.9 | 2,435.2 | 16.3 | -24.1 | 0.7 | -1.0 |
| Full-time | 1,256.0 | 1,277.9 | 21.9 | -32.7 | 1.7 | -2.5 |
| Part-time | 1,162.9 | 1,157.3 | -5.6 | 8.5 | -0.5 | 0.7 |
| Unemployment | 415.7 | 397.9 | -17.8 | -6.5 | -4.3 | -1.6 |
| Participation rate | 63.6 | 63.6 | 0.0 | -0.6 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 14.7 | 14.0 | -0.7 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 54.3 | 54.6 | 0.3 | -0.6 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 48.1 | 47.5 | -0.6 | 0.8 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,726.3 | 11,740.6 | 14.3 | 168.6 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Labour force | 8,562.5 | 8,555.6 | -6.9 | 165.8 | -0.1 | 2.0 |
| Employment | 8,001.4 | 8,011.9 | 10.5 | 156.9 | 0.1 | 2.0 |
| Full-time | 7,399.5 | 7,400.6 | 1.1 | 141.2 | 0.0 | 1.9 |
| Part-time | 601.9 | 611.3 | 9.4 | 15.7 | 1.6 | 2.6 |
| Unemployment | 561.1 | 543.7 | -17.4 | 8.9 | -3.1 | 1.7 |
| Participation rate | 73.0 | 72.9 | -0.1 | 0.4 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.6 | 6.4 | -0.2 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.2 | 68.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.5 | 7.6 | 0.1 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 12,231.4 | 12,245.8 | 14.4 | 168.0 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 7,580.4 | 7,607.7 | 27.3 | 129.8 | 0.4 | 1.7 |
| Employment | 7,147.2 | 7,179.7 | 32.5 | 161.0 | 0.5 | 2.3 |
| Full-time | 5,607.3 | 5,639.6 | 32.3 | 135.4 | 0.6 | 2.5 |
| Part-time | 1,539.9 | 1,540.2 | 0.3 | 25.7 | 0.0 | 1.7 |
| Unemployment | 433.2 | 428.0 | -5.2 | -31.2 | -1.2 | -6.8 |
| Participation rate | 62.0 | 62.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 5.7 | 5.6 | -0.1 | -0.5 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.4 | 58.6 | 0.2 | 0.5 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 21.5 | 21.5 | 0.0 | -0.1 | … | … |
… not applicable Note(s): Related CANSIM table 282-0087
It may not sound like much but this is a great start, especially considering unemployment accounts for a large percentage of bankruptcies in Canada.