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Job Picture Less Rosey in March for Canada

Friday Stats Canada pointed out that not only did the Gopher lie about an early spring, any hopes for continuing job growth is out the window as well, with a loss of 55,000 jobs in March.

If you look at the big picture employment is up 1.2% year over year, but losing that many jobs in a one month period is a bit depressing.

Labour Force Survey Canada
Employment Graph for the Past Little While

These numbers also caused the unemployment rate to rise 0.2 percentage points to 7.2%. For some reason employment is never as interesting as the unemployment rate (maybe I mean more worrisome)?

Unemployment for past Little While

The Lost Generation (as I have dubbed them) of those from 15 to 24 years old have even more depressing numbers to think about:

Among youths aged 15 to 24, employment was also little changed in March, while their unemployment rate increased 0.6 percentage points to 14.2%, as more youths searched for work. Employment among youths has been on a slight upward trend since August 2012.

The Big Table

The Big Table for this month will break down these numbers by age, but I encourage you to have a look at all 3 tables on the Stats Canada site:

Table 1
Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted

February 2013 March 2013 February to March 2013 March 2012 to March 2013 February to March 2013 March 2012 to March 2013
thousands (except rates) change in thousands (except rates) % change
Both sexes, 15 years and over
Population 28,526.3 28,551.2 24.9 343.1 0.1 1.2
Labour force 19,028.9 19,016.6 -12.3 219.2 -0.1 1.2
Employment 17,696.4 17,641.9 -54.5 203.3 -0.3 1.2
Full-time 14,373.0 14,319.0 -54.0 180.0 -0.4 1.3
Part-time 3,323.4 3,323.0 -0.4 23.4 0.0 0.7
Unemployment 1,332.6 1,374.7 42.1 15.9 3.2 1.2
Participation rate 66.7 66.6 -0.1 0.0
Unemployment rate 7.0 7.2 0.2 0.0
Employment rate 62.0 61.8 -0.2 0.0
Part-time rate 18.8 18.8 0.0 -0.1
Youths, 15 to 24 years
Population 4,453.8 4,452.5 -1.3 -4.2 0.0 -0.1
Labour force 2,843.4 2,851.2 7.8 7.9 0.3 0.3
Employment 2,456.8 2,446.9 -9.9 0.5 -0.4 0.0
Full-time 1,283.3 1,285.7 2.4 -18.0 0.2 -1.4
Part-time 1,173.5 1,161.1 -12.4 18.4 -1.1 1.6
Unemployment 386.6 404.4 17.8 7.5 4.6 1.9
Participation rate 63.8 64.0 0.2 0.2
Unemployment rate 13.6 14.2 0.6 0.2
Employment rate 55.2 55.0 -0.2 0.1
Part-time rate 47.8 47.5 -0.3 0.8
Men, 25 years and over
Population 11,783.7 11,796.8 13.1 174.6 0.1 1.5
Labour force 8,556.8 8,549.5 -7.3 89.1 -0.1 1.1
Employment 8,047.2 8,024.7 -22.5 98.1 -0.3 1.2
Full-time 7,448.3 7,414.7 -33.6 102.7 -0.5 1.4
Part-time 598.9 609.9 11.0 -4.7 1.8 -0.8
Unemployment 509.6 524.8 15.2 -9.0 3.0 -1.7
Participation rate 72.6 72.5 -0.1 -0.3
Unemployment rate 6.0 6.1 0.1 -0.2
Employment rate 68.3 68.0 -0.3 -0.2
Part-time rate 7.4 7.6 0.2 -0.2
Women, 25 years and over
Population 12,288.9 12,302.0 13.1 172.8 0.1 1.4
Labour force 7,628.7 7,615.9 -12.8 122.2 -0.2 1.6
Employment 7,192.3 7,170.4 -21.9 104.8 -0.3 1.5
Full-time 5,641.3 5,618.5 -22.8 95.1 -0.4 1.7
Part-time 1,551.0 1,551.9 0.9 9.7 0.1 0.6
Unemployment 436.3 445.5 9.2 17.4 2.1 4.1
Participation rate 62.1 61.9 -0.2 0.1
Unemployment rate 5.7 5.8 0.1 0.1
Employment rate 58.5 58.3 -0.2 0.0
Part-time rate 21.6 21.6 0.0 -0.2
not applicable
Note(s): 
Related CANSIM table 282-0087.

Feel Free to Comment

  1. Things aren’t so rosy for the 50+ either. Just look at what’s happening at RBC: it’s not the only company with the outsourcing/offshoring “answer” to profitability. Sigh.

  2. Maybe we’ll look back over these times of the ‘lost generation’ as times when a shift in the world led onto something better! Got to get through depressing figures somehow!

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