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Canajun Finances Home » More Part-Time Jobs in Canada, Yea?!?

More Part-Time Jobs in Canada, Yea?!?

Friday we got the news that there are more jobs in Canada in March, but they are part-time, thus those who are piecing together “patchwork careers” made up of many part-time jobs, have found more of them. Is this good news?

The report states:

Employment increased by 29,000 in March, driven by gains in part-time work. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.8%.

Over the first quarter, employment gains totalled 63,000 (+0.4%), the result of more part-time work.

In the 12 months to March, employment increased by 138,000 (+0.8%), with most of the growth in full-time work. Over the same period, the total number of hours worked was little changed (+0.1%).

More part-time jobs? Great for old folk who might retire and only want to work part-time, or teenagers looking for some extra cash, but for folks attempting to support  family? Yeh, not so much. I guess if we look at it year over year, there are more full-time jobs, so kind of “yea”?

Employment in Canada
Employment from the Past 5 Years

Unemployment continues to hover at 6.8%, which is a bit confusing and has me wondering how all these numbers are calculated.

Unemployment
Unemployment for Past Little While

If you thought this was “fun with numbers”, the following statement is even more telling:

Adjusted to concepts used in the United States, the unemployment rate in Canada was 5.9% in March, unchanged from February. At the same time, the US unemployment rate was 5.5%, also unchanged from a month earlier.

So the unemployment number might be even lower if we used American job counting methods? This is arithmetic.

The Big Table

More importantly here is one of the big employment tables, that you should read every month, to understand what you are being told.

Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted

 February 2015March 2015Std err1Feb to Mar 2015Mar 2014 to Mar 2015Feb to Mar 2015Mar 2014 to Mar 2015
 thousands (except rates)

change in thousands (except rates)

% change

Both sexes, 15 years and over       
Population29,160.729,183.322.6303.80.11.1
Labour force19,197.619,224.029.026.4111.90.10.6
Employment17,885.917,914.628.728.7138.10.20.8
Full-time14,488.214,460.039.2-28.2110.5-0.20.8
Part-time3,397.83,454.636.156.827.61.70.8
Unemployment1,311.71,309.324.6-2.4-26.3-0.2-2.0
Participation rate65.865.90.10.1-0.3
Unemployment rate6.86.80.10.0-0.2
Employment rate61.361.40.10.1-0.2
Part-time rate19.019.30.20.30.0
Youths, 15 to 24 years       
Population4,446.94,443.8-3.1-43.2-0.1-1.0
Labour force2,870.92,872.416.91.56.80.10.2
Employment2,488.42,499.015.610.623.30.40.9
Full-time1,266.21,262.718.8-3.5-14.6-0.3-1.1
Part-time1,222.11,236.319.814.237.91.23.2
Unemployment382.6373.314.5-9.3-16.6-2.4-4.3
Participation rate64.664.60.40.00.7
Unemployment rate13.313.00.5-0.3-0.6
Employment rate56.056.20.30.21.0
Part-time rate49.149.50.70.41.1
Men, 25 years and over       
Population12,087.512,099.812.3168.90.11.4
Labour force8,674.08,655.815.3-18.263.0-0.20.7
Employment8,139.58,135.216.5-4.376.3-0.10.9
Full-time7,497.27,486.721.9-10.5102.2-0.11.4
Part-time642.3648.517.96.2-25.91.0-3.8
Unemployment534.5520.614.3-13.9-13.3-2.6-2.5
Participation rate71.871.50.1-0.3-0.5
Unemployment rate6.26.00.2-0.2-0.2
Employment rate67.367.20.1-0.1-0.3
Part-time rate7.98.00.20.1-0.4
Women, 25 years and over       
Population12,626.212,639.813.6178.20.11.4
Labour force7,652.77,695.816.543.142.10.60.6
Employment7,258.17,280.416.022.338.50.30.5
Full-time5,724.75,710.624.9-14.122.8-0.20.4
Part-time1,533.41,569.823.736.415.72.41.0
Unemployment394.6415.413.220.83.65.30.9
Participation rate60.660.90.10.3-0.5
Unemployment rate5.25.40.20.20.0
Employment rate57.557.60.10.1-0.5
Part-time rate21.121.60.30.40.1

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):

The sum of individual categories may not always add up to the total as a result of rounding.

Source(s):

CANSIM table 282-0087.

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