On November 5th, 2010, Statistics Canada published the October result of its monthly labour market survey. It seems to indicate that the job market recovery has almost stalled, at a time of the year that is normally be characterized by steady job creation. The Vicinity Jobs hiring demand numbers from October also show that hiring pulled down sharply from its peak a month ago. What is unusual this time around is that other economic indicators – such as stock price indices – point to an overall economic recovery.

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According to Statistics Canada there was little change in employment in September. Full time gains were offset by part-time losses. The rate of unemployment went down 0.1 point to 8.0 percent – but for the wrong reason: Some job seekers, mostly youth, seem to have given up looking for work and dropped out of the labour force altogether. This is disappointing, as economists had expected 10,000 new jobs to be created. This did not quite happen as expected.
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Statistics Canada reported today that 672,200 people received regular Employment Insurance benefits in July, down 31,400 from June. They also stated that the decline offset the increases in spring and brought the number of beneficiaries to March levels.
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According to the results from a recent Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, Canadian employers are expecting a consistent hiring climate for Q4 2010. In the course of the next three months, the Manufacturing-Durables industry sector expect to see an active hiring pace — the most optimistic forecast in the past 10 years.
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On the face of it, the July unemployment numbers released by Statistics Canada on August 6, 2010 look quite disappointing: Unemployment increased across Canada, growing from 7.9% to 8%. The only bright spot really seemed to be Western Canada (whose economy is strongly dependant on the resource industries and on the commodity market trends). Unemployment in BC dipped 0.3 percentage points from 7.8% to 7.5%. However, hiring demand that that VicinityJobs.com gathers suggests that the worsening is unlikely to persist – at least in the Greater Toronto Area. (more…)

Statistics Canada released its latest labour force survey on Friday (read the full survey here: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/100507/dq100507a-eng.htm ), and it seems to be all good news. Employment grew in April at a rate not seen since 2002. In fact, the rate of employment gains in April was comparable to the magnitude of monthly employment losses that we were seeing in the early months of the recession.
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On September 3^rd (with a federal election looming) Steven Harper announced his Government’s decision to “invest” 80 million dollars into Ford’s future. Everyone looked happy: The Government of Ontario, the Opposition, the CAW… The Opposition and the CAW said that this decision was long overdue. Canada’s Industry Minister Jim Prentice claimed that this “investment” will help make the Canadian automobile industry more competitive and will “create or sustain” up to 750 jobs. A week later came another sobering announcement: Ford announced the elimination of one of its shifts and the layoff of 500 workers from the same plant where Jim Prentice had made his announcement the week before.

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