A bit of bad news on Friday from our friends at Stats Canada, their July 2013 Labour Force survey reported 39000 less jobs in July, which is disheartening given some better numbers the previous month.
Their analysis stated:
Led by declines among youths, employment decreased by 39,000 in July, and the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 7.2%. With this decrease, employment gains have averaged 11,000 per month over the past six months, slower than the average of 27,000 observed during the preceding six-month period.
This seems to suggest that the economy’s ability to create jobs is diminishing and not going as well as it did at the end of last year (2012). Is it a cooling-off economy or an economy heading for the rocks? Only time will tell on that one.
The graph shows consistent growth, but this dip is a bit problematic.
While those numbers in general, tell a story, the more exciting data statement is:
At the same time, the number of hours worked has grown 0.7%, as part-time employment rose at a faster pace than full-time (+2.2% versus +1.1%).
So, a lot of this growth over the last little while has been in part-time jobs. This is a lot more worrying to me, as I have seen with my children and their friends that the 15-24-year-old crowd seems to have to work many part-time jobs to make a full-time job. The retail world certainly is trying very hard not to have full-time employees (with their benefits and unions and such), in my opinion.
The Big Table
This report always includes three different big tables with more data in them to look at, so I include the numbers by age for you to see how your age group might be faring in terms of employment:
Labour force characteristics by age and sex Seasonally adjusted
| June 2013 | July 2013 | Std error1 | June to July 2013 |
July 2012 to July 2013 |
June to July 2013 |
July 2012 to July 2013 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands (except rates) | change in thousands (except rates) |
% change | |||||
| Both sexes, 15 years and over | |||||||
| Population | 28,656.6 | 28,695.4 | … | 38.8 | 357.2 | 0.1 | 1.3 |
| Labour force | 19,104.1 | 19,089.9 | 29.2 | -14.2 | 229.0 | -0.1 | 1.2 |
| Employment | 17,749.0 | 17,709.6 | 28.9 | -39.4 | 225.9 | -0.2 | 1.3 |
| Full-time | 14,399.3 | 14,381.0 | 39.0 | -18.3 | 153.9 | -0.1 | 1.1 |
| Part-time | 3,349.8 | 3,328.6 | 35.7 | -21.2 | 72.0 | -0.6 | 2.2 |
| Unemployment | 1,355.1 | 1,380.3 | 25.1 | 25.2 | 3.1 | 1.9 | 0.2 |
| Participation rate | 66.7 | 66.5 | 0.1 | -0.2 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 7.1 | 7.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | -0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 61.9 | 61.7 | 0.1 | -0.2 | 0.0 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 18.9 | 18.8 | 0.2 | -0.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Youths, 15 to 24 years | |||||||
| Population | 4,450.4 | 4,450.1 | … | -0.3 | -8.1 | 0.0 | -0.2 |
| Labour force | 2,883.5 | 2,834.7 | 17.3 | -48.8 | 5.2 | -1.7 | 0.2 |
| Employment | 2,485.8 | 2,440.2 | 15.8 | -45.6 | 13.9 | -1.8 | 0.6 |
| Full-time | 1,292.1 | 1,270.9 | 18.6 | -21.2 | -14.7 | -1.6 | -1.1 |
| Part-time | 1,193.7 | 1,169.3 | 19.5 | -24.4 | 28.6 | -2.0 | 2.5 |
| Unemployment | 397.6 | 394.5 | 14.9 | -3.1 | -8.7 | -0.8 | -2.2 |
| Participation rate | 64.8 | 63.7 | 0.4 | -1.1 | 0.2 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 13.8 | 13.9 | 0.5 | 0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 55.9 | 54.8 | 0.4 | -1.1 | 0.4 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 48.0 | 47.9 | 0.7 | -0.1 | 0.9 | … | … |
| Men, 25 years and over | |||||||
| Population | 11,850.2 | 11,870.2 | … | 20.0 | 183.1 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| Labour force | 8,577.2 | 8,604.1 | 15.1 | 26.9 | 94.7 | 0.3 | 1.1 |
| Employment | 8,048.8 | 8,068.7 | 16.3 | 19.9 | 99.7 | 0.2 | 1.3 |
| Full-time | 7,428.3 | 7,439.1 | 22.0 | 10.8 | 86.5 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| Part-time | 620.4 | 629.6 | 17.7 | 9.2 | 13.1 | 1.5 | 2.1 |
| Unemployment | 528.4 | 535.4 | 14.5 | 7.0 | -5.0 | 1.3 | -0.9 |
| Participation rate | 72.4 | 72.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | -0.3 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 6.2 | 6.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 67.9 | 68.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | -0.2 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 7.7 | 7.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Women, 25 years and over | |||||||
| Population | 12,355.9 | 12,375.0 | … | 19.1 | 182.2 | 0.2 | 1.5 |
| Labour force | 7,643.5 | 7,651.2 | 16.6 | 7.7 | 129.3 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Employment | 7,214.4 | 7,200.8 | 16.5 | -13.6 | 112.4 | -0.2 | 1.6 |
| Full-time | 5,678.9 | 5,671.1 | 25.4 | -7.8 | 82.2 | -0.1 | 1.5 |
| Part-time | 1,535.6 | 1,529.7 | 23.8 | -5.9 | 30.2 | -0.4 | 2.0 |
| Unemployment | 429.0 | 450.4 | 13.4 | 21.4 | 16.8 | 5.0 | 3.9 |
| Participation rate | 61.9 | 61.8 | 0.1 | -0.1 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Unemployment rate | 5.6 | 5.9 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Employment rate | 58.4 | 58.2 | 0.1 | -0.2 | 0.1 | … | … |
| Part-time rate | 21.3 | 21.2 | 0.3 | -0.1 | 0.0 | … | … |
The 2013 Job Picture
- Less Jobs in January in Canada not a good start to 2013.
- More Jobs in February in Canada which is better than January.
- Job Picture Less Rosey in March for Canada 2013 seems to have had it’s ups and downs.
- Employment Hovers for April in Canada better than down.
- More Jobs for May in Canada never a bad thing.
- Employment Unchanged for June in Canada, swooning in the summer.
- 39000 Less Jobs in July in Canada ? Oh dear…
- More Part-time Jobs in Canada in August which isn’t a bad thing, but full-time would be better.
- More Working in September in Canada ? Good!
- Some More Jobs in Canada (but not a lot more) for October in 2013
- Better Job News in Canada for November ’tis the season.
- Ugly Job Numbers to End 2013 not the best way to end the year.
The quality of jobs seems to be poor over the last number of years. Since people look at the total number of jobs created. A better idea would be only looking at full time jobs.
The trend to forcing people to have 3 part time jobs instead of one full time job is certainly growing. Partly it’s to avoid payroll taxes like benefits. Partly it’s because some places are only really busy 4-6 hours a day. The misuse of “interns” and contract employment are other big worries. It’s not easy to get a first mortgage if you are always working on 6-9 month contracts. Strange days indeed.