On Friday Stats Canada came out with another happier Jobs Report, reporting that Employment Numbers up and the Unemployment rate down to where it was in 2008 (before all the economic silliness of the past few years). Their exact statement was:
Employment rose for the second consecutive month, up 43,000 in October. This pushed the unemployment rate down 0.3 percentage points to 6.5%, the lowest rate since November 2008.
Quite cheery numbers given it does not seem like we are in an extensive recovery, but these numbers suggest that at least we are back to where we were in terms of unemployment (if you believe those numbers, that is).
The unemployment graph looks quite encouraging:
The more interesting numbers are in the detailed sections, where Stats Can points out:
Compared with October 2013, part-time employment rose by 101,000 (+3.0%) and full-time employment was up 81,000 (+0.6%). Over the same period, the number of hours worked rose slightly (+0.4%).
So the economy continues to grow part-time jobs, how many of our young folks are working multiple part-time jobs to be able to live? That would be a very interesting stat, but the number of hours worked rose so that hints that there are more hours being worked at least.
The employment graph looks better as well (going up is always a good thing on these graphs):
Two more very useful tidbits from the report are:
In October, employment grew in retail and wholesale trade; finance, insurance, real estate and leasing; manufacturing; and educational services. At the same time, employment was down in public administration, ‘other services’ and natural resources.
The number of private sector employees and self-employed workers increased in October, while the number of public sector employees fell.
So less jobs in the Public Sector is a good thing (in my opinion), the more the Private Sector creates jobs, the less Public Servants, the less expensive Government becomes, which I think is a good thing (even as a Civil Servant ).
The Big Table
Yes, I always include one of the Big Tables associated with the monthly report, just because I love BIG numbers.
Employment by class of worker and industry (based on NAICS1) Seasonally adjusted
| September 2014 | October 2014 | Std error2 |
Sept to Oct 2014 |
Oct 2013 to Oct 2014 | Sept to Oct 2014 |
Oct 2013 to Oct 2014 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands | change in thousands | % change | |||||
| Class of worker | |||||||
| Employees | 15,226.4 | 15,243.2 | 35.6 | 16.8 | 140.9 | 0.1 | 0.9 |
| Self-employed | 2,699.1 | 2,725.4 | 25.9 | 26.3 | 40.9 | 1.0 | 1.5 |
| Public/private sector employees |
|||||||
| Public | 3,682.0 | 3,628.2 | 25.0 | -53.8 | 0.1 | -1.5 | 0.0 |
| Private | 11,544.4 | 11,615.0 | 38.2 | 70.6 | 140.8 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| All industries | 17,925.5 | 17,968.6 | 28.5 | 43.1 | 181.8 | 0.2 | 1.0 |
| Goods-producing sector | 3,896.1 | 3,915.5 | 26.0 | 19.4 | 12.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Agriculture | 295.2 | 297.1 | 7.8 | 1.9 | -15.0 | 0.6 | -4.8 |
| Natural resources3 | 379.9 | 357.7 | 7.9 | -22.2 | -23.8 | -5.8 | -6.2 |
| Utilities | 148.9 | 152.1 | 5.3 | 3.2 | -5.0 | 2.1 | -3.2 |
| Construction | 1,352.6 | 1,355.8 | 17.6 | 3.2 | 21.5 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| Manufacturing | 1,719.5 | 1,752.7 | 18.9 | 33.2 | 34.7 | 1.9 | 2.0 |
| Services-producing sector | 14,029.4 | 14,053.1 | 34.4 | 23.7 | 169.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 |
| Trade | 2,700.4 | 2,738.9 | 24.3 | 38.5 | 33.2 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 878.6 | 886.7 | 14.6 | 8.1 | 21.3 | 0.9 | 2.5 |
| Finance, insurance, real estate and leasing |
1,108.6 | 1,144.3 | 16.7 | 35.7 | 13.8 | 3.2 | 1.2 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services |
1,376.2 | 1,380.1 | 18.7 | 3.9 | 21.0 | 0.3 | 1.5 |
| Business, building and other support services |
694.7 | 704.3 | 14.2 | 9.6 | 15.4 | 1.4 | 2.2 |
| Educational services | 1,286.9 | 1,308.6 | 16.2 | 21.7 | 23.0 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| Health care and social assistance | 2,248.5 | 2,236.9 | 19.4 | -11.6 | 40.1 | -0.5 | 1.8 |
| Information, culture and recreation | 788.9 | 776.7 | 14.8 | -12.2 | -10.5 | -1.5 | -1.3 |
| Accommodation and food services | 1,196.9 | 1,190.4 | 17.1 | -6.5 | 28.8 | -0.5 | 2.5 |
| Other services | 775.6 | 749.6 | 13.5 | -26.0 | -21.5 | -3.4 | -2.8 |
| Public administration | 974.2 | 936.7 | 12.4 | -37.5 | 4.9 | -3.8 | 0.5 |
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
How would THEY know I’m not looking? For the record, I did not give up, we (my wife and I) thought we would “try me” not working, and see what happened to the overall financial numbers… and now i’ll say. I’m not working in the traditional sense, but as an investor, income is nice. I guess all we can get from the spew of numbers then is the direction the government would like us to think we are going. and we the understanding folks that we are, can then use this knowledge to anticipate the governments next move… Dare I say it for me as an investor, but I use it to gauge where the market might be in future… timing the market. All smiles – Cheers, and by the way, I enjoy your raw blog humour… It is some of the best around.
I should really just publish my initial postings sometimes, because the initial sarcasm, bile, and downright mean-spiritedness that is me gets lost in my simple edit’ing. {sarcastic rude follow own edit’ed}
Out of curiosity, but how do they capture who’s unemployed? Is this via EI benefits, job seekers, or other specifically? I’m curious, if I’m a stay at home dad, not currently looking, and not on EI, where that would place me… Numbers and statistics can always be manipulated to support a bias. And yes I can say that with a certainty as I used to be a quality/reliability engineer that still plays with numbers for a living – Cheers.
You are NOT counted, you are not looking, so thus you must not want a job, thus you are not unemployed. That I know for sure (because they say many times the reason unemployment is down, is because less people were looking (i.e. gave up)). The unemployment number is a very dubious statistic at times, where employment is also dubious, due to it count Full and Part Time jobs as being the same thing.