by Strac Ivanov

Canada’s economy created 18,000 new jobs in the month of December. The unemployment rate edged up to 7.5% (from 7.4% in November) - but only because more people joined the labour force. Ironically, this is actually good news: It indicates that more unemployed people feel that they have decent enough chances to find work. But there is less to December’s employment growth numbers than meets the eye.
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By Brittney Windatt and Strac Ivanov

The month of September saw an employment increase of 61,000, following two months of little change, according to the September Labour Market Survey recently released by Statistics Canada.  This increase caused the unemployment rate to shift down 0.2 percentage points to 7.1 percent, representing the lowest rate since December 2008.  From September 2010 to September 2011, employment has grown by 1.7 percent, primarily in Ontario and Alberta.  Hiring demand in Ontario’s York Region also reached its highest level in August since 2008, and remained at a healthy level in September.
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On the face of it, the headline of the Statistics Canada labour market report for November sounded great: Unemployment dropped 0.3 percentage points to 7.6 % and is now at its lowest level since January 2009. But a closer look reveals that there is less substance behind this number than meets the eye. And those who were hoping that the numbers from South of the border would look better were bitterly disappointed as well.
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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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Statistics Canada has just released the results of its labour market survey for the month of August. The report did not contain any surprises and in line with expectations of various job market players and with hiring demand reports provided by Vicinity Jobs (including our forecasts discussed in our blog in recent months). (more…)

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 monthly labour market survey report  this morning (July 10th) for the month of June, and overall, it is fairly good news (the original report is found here: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/100709/dq100709a-eng.htm). Canada’s economy created 93,000 jobs – significantly more than generally expected. The trend was lead by Ontario, whereas employment in British Columbia remained unchanged.

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Statistics Canada published the results of its monthly labour market survey on Friday, June 4th. It indicates that even though Canada’s unemployment rate did not change in May, unemployment in Ontario and British Columbia grew. (more…)