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Unemployment rate stays at 7.0% in August

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  • Sep 10th, 2014 11:37 pm
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Banned
Aug 28, 2014
138 posts
7 upvotes
Vancouver, BC

Unemployment rate stays at 7.0% in August

Statistics Canada says the country's unemployment rate in August remained unchanged from the previous month at 7.0 per cent.

Between July and August, the economy lost 11,000 jobs, most of them part-time positions.

Economists had expected the economy to add 10,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate to remain at 7.0 per cent.

Statistics Canada says fewer people had jobs in wholesale and retail trade, transportation and warehousing, while more people had jobs in construction, in professional, scientific and technical services, and in public administration.

The agency says the number of private-sector employees fell by 112,000 in August while self-employment rose by 87,000.

The number of public-sector employees rose by 14,000 in August.

"Public-sector employment has been on an upward trend since February 2014, while the trend for private-sector employees and self-employment has been relatively flat since the fall of 2013," Statistics Canada said.

Fewer young people and women had jobs in August, says Statistics Canada. The number of people between the ages of 15 and 24 working fell by 20,000 during the month. Employment fell by 18,000 among women aged 25 to 54.

Men, however, fared better. Statistics Canada says the number of men between the ages of 25 to 54 with jobs rose by 36,000 in August.

Employment fell in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, and rose in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.



Canada's national unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent in August. Here's what happened provincially (previous month in brackets):

— Newfoundland 13.5 (12.4)

— Prince Edward Island 10.0 (9.4)

— Nova Scotia 8.8 (9.4)

— New Brunswick 8.7 (10.0)

— Quebec 7.7 (8.1)

— Ontario 7.4 (7.5)

— Manitoba 5.5 (5.3)

— Saskatchewan 4.2 (3.2)

— Alberta 4.9 (4.7)

— British Columbia 6.1 (5.9)
4 replies
Jr. Member
Jul 3, 2011
143 posts
36 upvotes
Canada
Published rates are always lower than the real rate due to some rules that are followed such as not counting people who no longer receive EI but are still out of work; you are not counted if you work 1 hour per week even if you seek full time work; you are not counted if you are employed part time at a rate of pay half of what you made previously (underemployed). Many people fall through these holes and are not counted in the official unemployment rate. The U.S. rate is close to double what they claim. Times really have changed, mostly for the worse in both countries. I don't know anyone who says things are better now than 25 or 40 years ago. Maybe hedge fund managers and those who peddle collateralized debt obligations and other "funny money" financial products are better off now but the vast majority not at all.
Sr. Member
Sep 28, 2013
836 posts
625 upvotes
many economists have remarked that the new numbers are as suspicious as last months, which were completely revised due to an error. At any rate, it's quite obvious that the underlying story is far worse than the unemployment rate suggests. The unemployment rate is a useless number actually, given the issues with the participation rate. The numbers you want are full time jobs growth and participation in labour force. As you can imagine, replacing full-time jobs with part-time or self-employment isn't really a great trend, but the unemployment rate counts them equally.
Member
User avatar
Nov 24, 2007
206 posts
23 upvotes
Kaon
In St. Catharines it keeps moving from 7.9, 8.0, 7.8 then 7.9 the last month or so. The only ones hiring around here (I'm going to school here) is call centres, like 10 part time seasonal jobs, plumbing, This Inspire place and 2 full times one at Walmart which was taken last week and 1 at Shoppers. It's not going to get better, it's only going to get worse, especially in Jan. I think it's hard now finding jobs, even harder in Jan, no one hires in Jan. It's the dead month for a reason, though last year it was dead season Jan-Mar, slow as heck where I used to work in the 10 years I worked there, never seen it so bad.

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