Friday, August 7, 2009

Canada employment still depressed

"Bucking predictions that the recession may have officially ended in July, Statistics Canada reported that Canada's labour market shed another 45,000 jobs as more people struggled to find work. It was a terrible month for the tourism sector and youth employment fell sharply from one of the worst summer job markets in decades.

The unemployment rate stayed at 8.6 per cent as discouraged workers appeared to leave the labour market and were not counted in the monthly tally from Statistics Canada.

Though the national unemployment rate was unchanged, one note of concern was that full-time employment and private sector jobs - the two most reliable indicators of labour market strength - both continued their downward trajectory.

"While a jobless recovery is possible, a job-destroying recovery isn't, since even if productivity gains allow it for a while, it leaves the household sector without the spending power to sustain it," wrote CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld.

"All told, these were much weaker numbers than anticipated."

"No one said it was going to be a smooth recovery, and especially not for employment," said BMO Capital Markets Economist Doug Porter.

  • (Previous month in brackets.)
    -St. John's, N.L. 8.1 (7.6)
    -Halifax 6.0 (5.9)
    -Saint John, N.B. 5.0 (5.0)
    -Saguenay, Que. 9.8 (9.2)
    -Quebec 4.8 (4.6)
    -Trois-Rivieres, Que. 8.3 (8.2)
    -Sherbrooke, Que. 8.5 (9.1)
    -Montreal 9.6 (9.5)
    -Gatineau, Que. 5.4 (5.4)
    -Ottawa 6.0 (6.4)
    -Kingston, Ont. 7.2 (6.6)
    -Toronto 10.0 (9.6)
    -Hamilton 8.2 (7.1)
    -Kitchener, Ont. 9.9 (9.9)
    -London, Ont. 10.6 (10.4)
    -Oshawa, Ont. 9.7 (8.7)
    -St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 10.5 (10.9)
    -Sudbury, Ont. 9.8 (8.9)
    -Thunder Bay, Ont. 8.5 (8.8)
    -Windsor, Ont. 15.2 (14.4)
    -Winnipeg 5.3 (4.9)
    -Regina 3.2 (3.4)
    -Saskatoon 4.7 (4.6)
    -Calgary 6.9 (6.6)
    -Edmonton 7.0 (6.5)
    -Abbotsford, B.C. 9.0 (8.2)
    -Vancouver 7.0 (6.9)
    -Victoria 6.1 (6.3)

Source: The Canadian Press

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