Ugly Job Numbers to End 2013

Friday our friends at Stats Canada published their monthly Labour Force Survey for December 2013, and it was not good news (at all). Canada lost 46,000 and the unemployment rate jumped 3/10 of a percent to 7.2, which is not a nice way to end 2013.

The better news is that there were 102,000 more jobs in 2013, but even with that good news, that is the lowest job growth number (for a year) since 2009. I guess that is like complaining about dwindling profits; at least we are still creating jobs.

The report also includes an extensive study of the year in employment, well worth a read (don’t just believe what the talking heads (or bloggers) tell you, go form your own opinions).

Now that is a nasty spike in a previously good looking graph (for the last little while).

The Big Table

The report from Stats Canada is quite extensive and it includes lots of really good info and here is one of their big tables outlining employment. Normally I include the by Age table, however, this month I’ll change it up and have jobs by category.

Employment by class of worker and industry (based on NAICS1) Seasonally adjusted

	Nov 2013	Dec 2013	Nov to Dec 2013	Dec 2012 to Dec 2013	Nov to Dec 2013	Dec 2012 to Dec 2013
	Thousands		change in thousands		% change
Class of worker
Employees	15,109.1	15,101.1	-8.0	85.1	-0.1	0.6
Self-employed	2,706.4	2,668.5	-37.9	16.9	-1.4	0.6
Public/private sector employees
Public	3,602.2	3,620.4	18.2	-28.1	0.5	-0.8
Private	11,507.0	11,480.7	-26.3	113.2	-0.2	1.0
All industries	17,815.5	17,769.6	-45.9	102.0	-0.3	0.6
Goods-producing sector	3,905.6	3,881.8	-23.8	2.4	-0.6	0.1
Agriculture	309.1	299.3	-9.8	-14.0	-3.2	-4.5
Natural resources3	385.7	377.7	-8.0	20.3	-2.1	5.7
Utilities	157.2	157.9	0.7	12.9	0.4	8.9
Construction	1,315.4	1,301.3	-14.1	24.8	-1.1	1.9
Manufacturing	1,738.1	1,745.6	7.5	-41.6	0.4	-2.3
Services-producing sector	13,909.9	13,887.8	-22.1	99.6	-0.2	0.7
Trade	2,700.9	2,696.3	-4.6	5.5	-0.2	0.2
Transportation and warehousing	872.4	868.9	-3.5	8.8	-0.4	1.0
Finance, insurance, real estate and leasing	1,132.8	1,134.2	1.4	14.7	0.1	1.3
Professional, scientific and technical services	1,356.7	1,368.8	12.1	85.5	0.9	6.7
Business, building and other support services	725.8	712.8	-13.0	13.9	-1.8	2.0
Educational services	1,298.3	1,279.8	-18.5	-44.0	-1.4	-3.3
Health care and social assistance	2,182.2	2,204.3	22.1	30.4	1.0	1.4
Information, culture and recreation	800.8	806.0	5.2	10.6	0.6	1.3
Accommodation and food services	1,148.5	1,132.5	-16.0	20.0	-1.4	1.8
Other services	775.9	760.9	-15.0	-15.7	-1.9	-2.0
Public administration	915.7	923.3	7.6	-30.0	0.8	-3.1

1.North American Industry Classification System.

2.Average standard error for change in two consecutive months. See “Sampling variability of estimates” in the section “About the Labour Force Survey” at the end of the publication Labour Force Information (Catalogue number71-001-X) for further explanations.

3.Also referred to as forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas.

Note(s): 

Related CANSIM tables 282-0088 and 282-0089. The sum of individual categories may not always add up to the total as a result of rounding.

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.