A bit of bad news on Friday from our friends at Stats Canada, their July 2013 Labour Force survey reported 39000 less jobs in July, which is disheartening given some better numbers the previous month.
Their analysis stated:
Led by declines among youths, employment decreased by 39,000 in July, and the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 7.2%. With this decrease, employment gains have averaged 11,000 per month over the past six months, slower than the average of 27,000 observed during the preceding six-month period.
So this seems to suggest the economy’s ability to create jobs is diminishing, and not going as well as the end of last year (2012). A cooling off economy, or an economy heading for the rocks? Only time will tell on that one.
The graph shows that consistent growth but this dip is a bit worrisome.
While those numbers in general tell a story, the more interesting data statement is:
At the same time, the number of hours worked has grown 0.7%, as part-time employment rose at a faster pace than full-time (+2.2% versus +1.1%).
So a lot of this growth over the last little while has been in part-time jobs. This is a lot more worrying to me as I have seen with my children and their friends that the 15-24 year old crowd seem to have to work many part-time jobs to make a full-time job. The retail world certainly is trying very hard to not have full-time employees (with their benefits and unions and such), in my opinion.
The Big Table
This report always includes three different big tables with more data in them to look at, so I include the numbers by age for you to see how your age group might be faring in terms of employment:
Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted
| Â | June 2013 | July 2013 | Std error1 | June to July 2013 |
July 2012 to July 2013 |
June to July 2013 |
July 2012 to July 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Â | thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) |
% change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â |
| Population | 28,656.6 | 28,695.4 | … | 38.8 | 357.2 | 0.1 | 1.3 |
| Labour force | 19,104.1 | 19,089.9 | 29.2 | -14.2 | 229.0 | -0.1 | 1.2 |
| Employment | 17,749.0 | 17,709.6 | 28.9 | -39.4 | 225.9 | -0.2 | 1.3 |
| Full-time | 14,399.3 | 14,381.0 | 39.0 | -18.3 | 153.9 | -0.1 | 1.1 |
| Part-time | 3,349.8 | 3,328.6 | 35.7 | -21.2 | 72.0 | -0.6 | 2.2 |
| Unemployment | 1,355.1 | 1,380.3 | 25.1 | 25.2 | 3.1 | 1.9 | 0.2 |
| Participation rate | 66.7 | 66.5 | 0.1 | -0.2 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.1 | 7.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.9 | 61.7 | 0.1 | -0.2 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 18.9 | 18.8 | 0.2 | -0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â |
| Population | 4,450.4 | 4,450.1 | … | -0.3 | -8.1 | 0.0 | -0.2 |
| Labour force | 2,883.5 | 2,834.7 | 17.3 | -48.8 | 5.2 | -1.7 | 0.2 |
| Employment | 2,485.8 | 2,440.2 | 15.8 | -45.6 | 13.9 | -1.8 | 0.6 |
| Full-time | 1,292.1 | 1,270.9 | 18.6 | -21.2 | -14.7 | -1.6 | -1.1 |
| Part-time | 1,193.7 | 1,169.3 | 19.5 | -24.4 | 28.6 | -2.0 | 2.5 |
| Unemployment | 397.6 | 394.5 | 14.9 | -3.1 | -8.7 | -0.8 | -2.2 |
| Participation rate | 64.8 | 63.7 | 0.4 | -1.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 13.8 | 13.9 | 0.5 | 0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 55.9 | 54.8 | 0.4 | -1.1 | 0.4 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 48.0 | 47.9 | 0.7 | -0.1 | 0.9 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â |
| Population | 11,850.2 | 11,870.2 | … | 20.0 | 183.1 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| Labour force | 8,577.2 | 8,604.1 | 15.1 | 26.9 | 94.7 | 0.3 | 1.1 |
| Employment | 8,048.8 | 8,068.7 | 16.3 | 19.9 | 99.7 | 0.2 | 1.3 |
| Full-time | 7,428.3 | 7,439.1 | 22.0 | 10.8 | 86.5 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Part-time | 620.4 | 629.6 | 17.7 | 9.2 | 13.1 | 1.5 | 2.1 |
| Unemployment | 528.4 | 535.4 | 14.5 | 7.0 | -5.0 | 1.3 | -0.9 |
| Participation rate | 72.4 | 72.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.2 | 6.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 67.9 | 68.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.7 | 7.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â |
| Population | 12,355.9 | 12,375.0 | … | 19.1 | 182.2 | 0.2 | 1.5 |
| Labour force | 7,643.5 | 7,651.2 | 16.6 | 7.7 | 129.3 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Employment | 7,214.4 | 7,200.8 | 16.5 | -13.6 | 112.4 | -0.2 | 1.6 |
| Full-time | 5,678.9 | 5,671.1 | 25.4 | -7.8 | 82.2 | -0.1 | 1.5 |
| Part-time | 1,535.6 | 1,529.7 | 23.8 | -5.9 | 30.2 | -0.4 | 2.0 |
| Unemployment | 429.0 | 450.4 | 13.4 | 21.4 | 16.8 | 5.0 | 3.9 |
| Participation rate | 61.9 | 61.8 | 0.1 | -0.1 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 5.6 | 5.9 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.4 | 58.2 | 0.1 | -0.2 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 21.3 | 21.2 | 0.3 | -0.1 | 0.0 | … | … |
The quality of jobs seems to be poor over the last number of years. Since people look at the total number of jobs created. A better idea would be only looking at full time jobs.
The trend to forcing people to have 3 part time jobs instead of one full time job is certainly growing. Partly it’s to avoid payroll taxes like benefits. Partly it’s because some places are only really busy 4-6 hours a day. The misuse of “interns” and contract employment are other big worries. It’s not easy to get a first mortgage if you are always working on 6-9 month contracts. Strange days indeed.