Friday our friends from Stats Canada published their monthly Labour Force Survey for June 2012, and their news is that not much has changed. The good news is that things don’t seem worse, but they really aren’t that much better either. June being a typical time when new grads join the Labour Force, so this seems to suggest that a lot of Grads may still be looking for jobs?
The commentary from Stats Canada states:
In June, employment was little changed for the second consecutive month and the unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points to 7.2%, as fewer people searched for work.
Compared with 12 months earlier, employment increased 1.0% or 181,000. At the same time, full-time work was up 222,000 (+1.6%), while part-time work was little changed. The total number of hours worked rose 2.2%.
The happy news is that the jobs that are being found are full-time jobs (with the ensuing benefits and such (hopefully)), with 222,000 more full-time jobs year over year from last year.
The graphs from Stats Canada do still look much more optimistic:
That is a happy looking rising curve, to show nicer employment numbers.
The unemployment graph is also showing a little bit of happiness too:
The problem with the graphic is that the commentary points out that the reason unemployment is dropping is because fewer people are looking for jobs, which is disheartening.
In my family my oldest is still on the job hunt, and it is worrisome, because I know a few new grads and the ones that have jobs are not working where they want (which is better than being unemployed, but still makes me wonder). When will all those Baby Boomers start leaving the work force opening up room for the younger folks? Wait a minute I think I am in that group…
The Big Table
I love knowing all the data (being a mathematician), so I always make sure I include at least one of the big tables supplied by Stats Canada (go check them all out, they are quite enlightening):
Table 1 Labour force characteristics by age and sex – Seasonally adjusted
| May 2012 | June 2012 | May to June 2012 |
June 2011 to June 2012 |
May to June 2012 |
June 2011 to June 2012 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) |
% change | ||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 28,271.6 | 28,301.3 | 29.7 | 325.6 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Labour force | 18,881.0 | 18,864.2 | -16.8 | 149.0 | -0.1 | 0.8 |
| Employment | 17,502.4 | 17,509.7 | 7.3 | 181.1 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Full-time | 14,173.3 | 14,202.6 | 29.3 | 221.5 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| Part-time | 3,329.1 | 3,307.1 | -22.0 | -40.4 | -0.7 | -1.2 |
| Unemployment | 1,378.6 | 1,354.5 | -24.1 | -32.1 | -1.7 | -2.3 |
| Participation rate | 66.8 | 66.7 | -0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.3 | 7.2 | -0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.9 | 61.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 19.0 | 18.9 | -0.1 | -0.4 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | ||||||
| Population | 4,457.3 | 4,457.5 | 0.2 | -0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Labour force | 2,843.6 | 2,859.7 | 16.1 | -33.3 | 0.6 | -1.2 |
| Employment | 2,436.1 | 2,436.9 | 0.8 | -43.0 | 0.0 | -1.7 |
| Full-time | 1,280.3 | 1,284.4 | 4.1 | -33.1 | 0.3 | -2.5 |
| Part-time | 1,155.8 | 1,152.5 | -3.3 | -9.9 | -0.3 | -0.9 |
| Unemployment | 407.5 | 422.8 | 15.3 | 9.7 | 3.8 | 2.3 |
| Participation rate | 63.8 | 64.2 | 0.4 | -0.7 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 14.3 | 14.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 54.7 | 54.7 | 0.0 | -0.9 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 47.4 | 47.3 | -0.1 | 0.4 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 11,653.9 | 11,668.8 | 14.9 | 162.4 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 8,503.0 | 8,480.2 | -22.8 | 94.7 | -0.3 | 1.1 |
| Employment | 7,973.8 | 7,962.7 | -11.1 | 110.4 | -0.1 | 1.4 |
| Full-time | 7,364.3 | 7,362.7 | -1.6 | 142.1 | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| Part-time | 609.6 | 600.0 | -9.6 | -31.8 | -1.6 | -5.0 |
| Unemployment | 529.2 | 517.5 | -11.7 | -15.6 | -2.2 | -2.9 |
| Participation rate | 73.0 | 72.7 | -0.3 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.2 | 6.1 | -0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 68.4 | 68.2 | -0.2 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.6 | 7.5 | -0.1 | -0.5 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | ||||||
| Population | 12,160.4 | 12,175.0 | 14.6 | 163.3 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| Labour force | 7,534.4 | 7,524.4 | -10.0 | 87.7 | -0.1 | 1.2 |
| Employment | 7,092.5 | 7,110.1 | 17.6 | 113.7 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| Full-time | 5,528.7 | 5,555.5 | 26.8 | 112.5 | 0.5 | 2.1 |
| Part-time | 1,563.8 | 1,554.6 | -9.2 | 1.2 | -0.6 | 0.1 |
| Unemployment | 441.9 | 414.2 | -27.7 | -26.2 | -6.3 | -5.9 |
| Participation rate | 62.0 | 61.8 | -0.2 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 5.9 | 5.5 | -0.4 | -0.4 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.3 | 58.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 22.0 | 21.9 | -0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
