Due to my mind being a little preoccupied, I completely missed my buddies from Stats Canada publishing the October 2010 Labour Survey. My apologies to my regular readers who enjoy my nonsensical commentary on these interesting Statistical figures.
It was another month where the statistical values remained relatively the same, with gains in Full Time employment being offset by losses in Part Time employment, which makes me scratch my head (every month). If they could put together some kind of Index that weighted the value of Full Time employment in a better manner I think I’d be happier with the numbers.
In October, employment remained virtually unchanged for the second consecutive month, as full-time gains offset part-time losses. The unemployment rate edged down to 7.9% and has been around 8% for the past seven months.
Unemployment rate dropping is always a good thing to read about, and given the rates seen South of the Border, it’s good to see Canada is slowly creating more jobs (or losing less jobs).
The graph seems to suggest that our employment numbers have recovered from the Great Economic Plotz of 2008, but that remains to be seen as well.
The unemployment graph gives us a little more optimism too.
The most interesting comment in the report, is:
The number of people working full-time continued to rise in October, up 47,000, bringing gains to 164,000 over the past three months. At the same time, the total number of hours worked has edged up.
Part-time employment fell by 44,000 in October, with losses totalling 132,000 over the past three months.
A final interesting graphic, does kind of give me a better view on this whole Full Time vs. Part Time argument:
The Big Table
As most of my regular readers know, I love the Big Tables from these kind of data sets, and this months table shows some interesting info as usual:
| Sept 2010 | Oct 2010 | Sept to Oct 2010 |
Oct 2009 to Oct 2010 |
Sept to Oct 2010 |
Oct 2009 to Oct 2010 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | ||||||
| thousands | change in thousands | % change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 27,809.6 | 27,840.4 | 30.8 | 407.3 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Labour force | 18,702.7 | 18,698.4 | -4.3 | 319.1 | 0.0 | 1.7 |
| Employment | 17,209.7 | 17,212.7 | 3.0 | 375.2 | 0.0 | 2.2 |
| Full-time | 13,862.6 | 13,909.8 | 47.2 | 218.6 | 0.3 | 1.6 |
| Part-time | 3,347.1 | 3,302.9 | -44.2 | 156.5 | -1.3 | 5.0 |
| Unemployment | 1,493.0 | 1,485.7 | -7.3 | -56.0 | -0.5 | -3.6 |
| Participation rate | 67.3 | 67.2 | -0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 8.0 | 7.9 | -0.1 | -0.5 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.9 | 61.8 | -0.1 | 0.4 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 19.4 | 19.2 | -0.2 | 0.5 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,409.3 | 4,409.8 | 0.5 | 10.7 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Labour force | 2,821.0 | 2,827.4 | 6.4 | 17.0 | 0.2 | 0.6 |
| Employment | 2,401.6 | 2,402.7 | 1.1 | 20.3 | 0.0 | 0.9 |
| Full-time | 1,250.1 | 1,251.1 | 1.0 | -44.6 | 0.1 | -3.4 |
| Part-time | 1,151.6 | 1,151.5 | -0.1 | 64.8 | 0.0 | 6.0 |
| Unemployment | 419.4 | 424.7 | 5.3 | -3.3 | 1.3 | -0.8 |
| Participation rate | 64.0 | 64.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 14.9 | 15.0 | 0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 54.5 | 54.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 48.0 | 47.9 | -0.1 | 2.3 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,447.7 | 11,462.5 | 14.8 | 196.6 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Labour force | 8,443.1 | 8,411.5 | -31.6 | 150.6 | -0.4 | 1.8 |
| Employment | 7,841.1 | 7,834.5 | -6.6 | 235.2 | -0.1 | 3.1 |
| Full-time | 7,213.3 | 7,220.3 | 7.0 | 191.1 | 0.1 | 2.7 |
| Part-time | 627.8 | 614.3 | -13.5 | 44.2 | -2.2 | 7.8 |
| Unemployment | 602.1 | 576.9 | -25.2 | -84.7 | -4.2 | -12.8 |
| Participation rate | 73.8 | 73.4 | -0.4 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.1 | 6.9 | -0.2 | -1.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.5 | 68.3 | -0.2 | 0.8 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 8.0 | 7.8 | -0.2 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,952.7 | 11,968.0 | 15.3 | 199.9 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Labour force | 7,438.5 | 7,459.5 | 21.0 | 151.5 | 0.3 | 2.1 |
| Employment | 6,967.0 | 6,975.5 | 8.5 | 119.7 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Full-time | 5,399.2 | 5,438.4 | 39.2 | 72.2 | 0.7 | 1.3 |
| Part-time | 1,567.7 | 1,537.1 | -30.6 | 47.6 | -2.0 | 3.2 |
| Unemployment | 471.6 | 484.1 | 12.5 | 31.9 | 2.7 | 7.1 |
| Participation rate | 62.2 | 62.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.3 | 6.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.3 | 58.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 22.5 | 22.0 | -0.5 | 0.3 | … | … |
Hi! This is such a great article and I am sure a lot of money saving enthusiasts are going to benefit from this. Keep it up! I am Diana Mathew, an Australian Entrepreneur, ebook author (The Money Tree by Diana Mathew) and a Saving Money guru.
eek! I didn’t realize our unemployment rate was that high!
All I can say is — if you are a skilled tradesperson, come on up to Yellowknife! (oh – or a healthcare professional!)
Good blog, what what is the future of work like in Canada looking forward 10 or 20 years?