Friday Stats Canada announced their Labour Force Survey for the year ending in January 2014, and while the news wasn’t bad, and some might even construe it as good, I disagree. The exact quote from them states:
Employment rose by 29,000 in January, the result of an increase in full-time work. The unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 7.0%.
So we end up with another interesting dichotomy where a small employment jump (but happily in Full-Time jobs) leads to a 0.2 percent drop in unemployment? Doesn’t seem to match up very well does it?
The employment graph shows a jump back up to where we were before:
An even more interesting bit of data is the following:
Over the past 12 months, employment increased 0.8% or 146,000 and the number of hours worked rose 0.7%.
During the same period, the employment rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 61.6% as employment grew at a slower pace than the population.
Employment numbers increase, but the rate drops? This is why Statisticians make so much money, they can figure out how to say the same thing two different ways with the same numbers.
The unemployment graph mimics the employment graph in that it shows a recovery to last month (well not quite it’s still at 7%):
The other disconcerting piece of data I found was this:
In January, youths aged 15 to 24 saw little change in employment, and their unemployment rate was 13.9%. On a year-over-year basis, youth employment was down 29,000 or 1.2%.
I hate that number, thinking that kids about the age of my kids have that kind of unemployment rate worries me a great deal (even with the slight improvement of things).
The Big Table
As I usually do, I am including one of the big tables of data supplied by Stats Canada, this month I will compare age:
Labour force characteristics by age and sex Seasonally adjusted
|
Dec 2013 |
Jan 2014 |
Std err1 |
Dec 2013 |
Jan 2013 |
Dec 2013 |
Jan 2013 | |
|
thousands (except rates) |
change in thousands (except rates) |
% change | |||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | |||||||
| Population |
28,843.7 |
28,870.4 |
… |
26.7 |
369.2 |
0.1 |
1.3 |
| Labour force |
19,151.4 |
19,130.5 |
29.1 |
-20.9 |
160.1 |
-0.1 |
0.8 |
| Employment |
17,767.9 |
17,797.3 |
28.9 |
29.4 |
145.9 |
0.2 |
0.8 |
| Full-time |
14,374.2 |
14,424.7 |
39.2 |
50.5 |
70.5 |
0.4 |
0.5 |
| Part-time |
3,393.7 |
3,372.6 |
36.1 |
-21.1 |
75.4 |
-0.6 |
2.3 |
| Unemployment |
1,383.5 |
1,333.2 |
24.9 |
-50.3 |
14.1 |
-3.6 |
1.1 |
| Participation rate |
66.4 |
66.3 |
0.1 |
-0.1 |
-0.3 |
… |
… |
| Unemployment rate |
7.2 |
7.0 |
0.1 |
-0.2 |
0.0 |
… |
… |
| Employment rate |
61.6 |
61.6 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
-0.3 |
… |
… |
| Part-time rate |
19.1 |
19.0 |
0.2 |
-0.1 |
0.3 |
… |
… |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | |||||||
| Population |
4,439.9 |
4,436.8 |
… |
-3.1 |
-17.9 |
-0.1 |
-0.4 |
| Labour force |
2,816.1 |
2,815.1 |
17.2 |
-1.0 |
-20.9 |
0.0 |
-0.7 |
| Employment |
2,421.9 |
2,423.4 |
15.8 |
1.5 |
-29.4 |
0.1 |
-1.2 |
| Full-time |
1,249.4 |
1,242.8 |
18.6 |
-6.6 |
-67.4 |
-0.5 |
-5.1 |
| Part-time |
1,172.5 |
1,180.6 |
19.7 |
8.1 |
38.0 |
0.7 |
3.3 |
| Unemployment |
394.3 |
391.7 |
14.6 |
-2.6 |
8.5 |
-0.7 |
2.2 |
| Participation rate |
63.4 |
63.4 |
0.4 |
0.0 |
-0.3 |
… |
… |
| Unemployment rate |
14.0 |
13.9 |
0.5 |
-0.1 |
0.4 |
… |
… |
| Employment rate |
54.5 |
54.6 |
0.4 |
0.1 |
-0.5 |
… |
… |
| Part-time rate |
48.4 |
48.7 |
0.7 |
0.3 |
2.1 |
… |
… |
| Men, 25 years and over | |||||||
| Population |
11,951.2 |
11,966.6 |
… |
15.4 |
195.9 |
0.1 |
1.7 |
| Labour force |
8,638.2 |
8,654.7 |
15.1 |
16.5 |
109.4 |
0.2 |
1.3 |
| Employment |
8,082.3 |
8,124.1 |
16.4 |
41.8 |
100.8 |
0.5 |
1.3 |
| Full-time |
7,441.1 |
7,486.2 |
22.0 |
45.1 |
66.5 |
0.6 |
0.9 |
| Part-time |
641.2 |
637.8 |
18.0 |
-3.4 |
34.3 |
-0.5 |
5.7 |
| Unemployment |
555.8 |
530.7 |
14.5 |
-25.1 |
8.7 |
-4.5 |
1.7 |
| Participation rate |
72.3 |
72.3 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
-0.3 |
… |
… |
| Unemployment rate |
6.4 |
6.1 |
0.2 |
-0.3 |
0.0 |
… |
… |
| Employment rate |
67.6 |
67.9 |
0.1 |
0.3 |
-0.3 |
… |
… |
| Part-time rate |
7.9 |
7.9 |
0.2 |
0.0 |
0.4 |
… |
… |
| Women, 25 years and over | |||||||
| Population |
12,452.6 |
12,467.0 |
… |
14.4 |
191.2 |
0.1 |
1.6 |
| Labour force |
7,697.1 |
7,660.7 |
16.6 |
-36.4 |
71.6 |
-0.5 |
0.9 |
| Employment |
7,263.8 |
7,249.9 |
16.4 |
-13.9 |
74.6 |
-0.2 |
1.0 |
| Full-time |
5,683.7 |
5,695.7 |
25.7 |
12.0 |
71.5 |
0.2 |
1.3 |
| Part-time |
1,580.1 |
1,554.1 |
24.0 |
-26.0 |
3.0 |
-1.6 |
0.2 |
| Unemployment |
433.3 |
410.8 |
13.3 |
-22.5 |
-3.0 |
-5.2 |
-0.7 |
| Participation rate |
61.8 |
61.4 |
0.1 |
-0.4 |
-0.4 |
… |
… |
| Unemployment rate |
5.6 |
5.4 |
0.2 |
-0.2 |
-0.1 |
… |
… |
| Employment rate |
58.3 |
58.2 |
0.1 |
-0.1 |
-0.3 |
… |
… |
| Part-time rate |
21.8 |
21.4 |
0.3 |
-0.4 |
-0.2 |
… |
… |
…
not applicable
1.Average standard error for change in two consecutive months. See “Sampling variability of estimates” in the section “About the Labour Force Survey” at the end of the publication Labour Force Information (Catalogue number71-001-X) for further explanations.
Note(s):
Related CANSIM table 282-0087. The sum of individual categories may not always add up to the total as a result of rounding.
Jobs in 2014
What was the job market like in 2014?
- The Changing Landscape of Jobs in 2014: What to Expect?
- Unemployment Creeps Up for November 2014
- Unemployment is like it is 2008 Again
- Good Job Picture for September in Canada
- Moribund Job Growth in July in Canada
- Unemployment Ticks Up in Canada in June
- More (Part-time) Jobs in Canada in May 2014
- No Jobs, no jobs, no new jobs ?
- Young Folk Finding Jobs in Canada in March 2014
- Stagnant Job Picture in February
- Unemployment Down, but not that good news to start 2014
- Ugly Job Numbers to End 2013
I would love to see actual number on how many college/university grads get jobs straight out of school, in the field of study they went to school for. With the typical job requirement of 2-3 years experience, none of us graduating with a certificate or diploma have that required experience. Catch 22… how do you get the experience for the job, when you need the job to get the experience?