CLC says jobs recovery has stalled: Hassan Yussuff comments on job numbers for June

OTTAWA ― The Canadian Labour Congress says that, despite the rosy picture painted by Conservative politicians in a new social media campaign, millions of Canadians are struggling to find full time jobs that pay decently. So far this year the working age population (15-64) has been growing 6 times faster than employment among working age Canadians.

“The truth is that the jobs recovery has stalled,” said Yussuff. “Our governments talk about investing in jobs, but they haven’t taken constructive action. It’s time for governments to provide deliberate labour market strategies that will allow people to find full-time, meaningful work.”

Yussuff was commenting on the release by Statistics Canada of its Labour Force Survey for June 2014. There were 1,369,500 unemployed Canadians in June, and the overall unemployment rate inched higher to 7.1%. In the 15-to-24 age group, unemployment stood at 13.4%, and 48.3% of young workers are employed part-time.

The rate of underemployment rate was much higher at 14.3% overall and 28.8% for young workers.  “There are more workers underemployed than there are unemployed in our country,” Yussuff says. “That is an indictment of how the economy is failing Canadians. Too many remain at the margins of our labour force and our society.”

Quick Analysis from CLC Senior Economist Angella MacEwen

Economists were surprised this month that Canadian labour market shed jobs in June, rather than the modest pick-up they were expecting. The unemployment rate rose to 7.1% as more people were looking for work. Adjusted to match US methods, the Canadian unemployment rate is now equal to the US unemployment rate, as the job market south of the border has seen solid growth over the past year while the Canadian job market has stalled.

Year over year employment rose by 72,000, or 0.4% – the lowest year-over-year growth rate in four years. Breaking this down by age, we see that net job growth among core age workers (15-64) actually declined over this period.  All net job growth in this period was among workers over 65. Two thirds of year-over-year job growth has been concentrated in one industry – health care and social assistance.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.3 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 111 district labour councils

Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca
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