The year ended OK in terms of Employment, with the Employment rate increasing, according to Stats Canada on Friday. Â In total there were 22,000 new jobs in December, with 38,000 of those being full-time positions, which is great news. I will make my monthly observation that there needs to be an index that reflects Full-Time employment position stats (yes it is included by Stats Canada, with this data).
Employment edged up for the second consecutive month in December, with an increase of 22,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 7.6%. Compared with December 2009, employment increased by 2.2% (+369,000), following a decline of 1.1% the previous year.
So as a whole 2010 was a good year for folks getting jobs back, and that has got to be good news for the Canadian economy overall.
This graph is reassuring for Canadians, and hearing that the job increases in Full-time employment is even better news.
This is one of those weird months where, even though Employment increased, unemployment didn’t decrease? Statistics are a wonderful thing.
Private Sector Recovery?
The number of private sector employees increased by 53,000 in December, while self-employment fell by 38,000. At the same time, public sector employment was little changed.
There is a lot of interesting information in this article (I encourage you to read this), but one that caught my eye was that the Private Sector seems to be hiring more folks, which means industry must be recovering in some fashion. The Public Sector has hired a large number of folks, but the Private Sector is the important area where hiring needs to rebound.
Over the past 12 months, 332,000 (+3.1%) employees were added to the private sector and 143,000 (+4.2%) to the public sector. The number of self-employed declined by 106,000 (-3.9%) over the same period.
The Big Table
I include one of the many big tables from Stats Canada outlining employment by age, which is important to me.
| November 2010 | December 2010 | Nov. to Dec. 2010 |
Dec. 2009 to Dec. 2010 |
Nov. to Dec. 2010 |
Dec. 2009 to Dec. 2010 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | ||||||
| thousands | change in thousands | % change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 27,868.9 | 27,894.2 | 25.3 | 403.5 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Labour force | 18,654.8 | 18,674.0 | 19.2 | 236.8 | 0.1 | 1.3 |
| Employment | 17,227.9 | 17,249.9 | 22.0 | 368.5 | 0.1 | 2.2 |
| Full-time | 13,898.3 | 13,936.3 | 38.0 | 259.1 | 0.3 | 1.9 |
| Part-time | 3,329.6 | 3,313.5 | -16.1 | 109.2 | -0.5 | 3.4 |
| Unemployment | 1,426.9 | 1,424.1 | -2.8 | -131.7 | -0.2 | -8.5 |
| Participation rate | 66.9 | 66.9 | 0.0 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.6 | 7.6 | 0.0 | -0.8 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.8 | 61.8 | 0.0 | 0.4 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 19.3 | 19.2 | -0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,410.7 | 4,411.3 | 0.6 | 11.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Labour force | 2,787.0 | 2,824.8 | 37.8 | -23.0 | 1.4 | -0.8 |
| Employment | 2,407.5 | 2,433.9 | 26.4 | 41.9 | 1.1 | 1.8 |
| Full-time | 1,260.8 | 1,272.0 | 11.2 | -0.3 | 0.9 | 0.0 |
| Part-time | 1,146.7 | 1,161.9 | 15.2 | 42.3 | 1.3 | 3.8 |
| Unemployment | 379.5 | 390.9 | 11.4 | -65.0 | 3.0 | -14.3 |
| Participation rate | 63.2 | 64.0 | 0.8 | -0.7 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 13.6 | 13.8 | 0.2 | -2.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 54.6 | 55.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 47.6 | 47.7 | 0.1 | 0.9 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,476.4 | 11,488.9 | 12.5 | 195.1 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Labour force | 8,414.0 | 8,414.7 | 0.7 | 146.7 | 0.0 | 1.8 |
| Employment | 7,836.1 | 7,844.7 | 8.6 | 235.1 | 0.1 | 3.1 |
| Full-time | 7,233.4 | 7,233.8 | 0.4 | 223.4 | 0.0 | 3.2 |
| Part-time | 602.7 | 610.9 | 8.2 | 11.7 | 1.4 | 2.0 |
| Unemployment | 577.9 | 570.0 | -7.9 | -88.3 | -1.4 | -13.4 |
| Participation rate | 73.3 | 73.2 | -0.1 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.9 | 6.8 | -0.1 | -1.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.3 | 68.3 | 0.0 | 0.9 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.7 | 7.8 | 0.1 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,981.7 | 11,994.1 | 12.4 | 197.5 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Labour force | 7,453.8 | 7,434.6 | -19.2 | 113.2 | -0.3 | 1.5 |
| Employment | 6,984.3 | 6,971.3 | -13.0 | 91.5 | -0.2 | 1.3 |
| Full-time | 5,404.1 | 5,430.5 | 26.4 | 36.1 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Part-time | 1,580.2 | 1,540.7 | -39.5 | 55.3 | -2.5 | 3.7 |
| Unemployment | 469.5 | 463.3 | -6.2 | 21.7 | -1.3 | 4.9 |
| Participation rate | 62.2 | 62.0 | -0.2 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.3 | 6.2 | -0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.3 | 58.1 | -0.2 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 22.6 | 22.1 | -0.5 | 0.5 | … | … |
