Jobs, Economy and Environment

It’s (still) time for leadership on jobs: Revised job numbers for July don’t change the story

August 15, 2014
OTTAWA ― While today’s revised job numbers from Statistics Canada show fewer jobs were lost than those originally reported, it’s the same story as far as the quality of the new jobs available to Canada’s 1.35 million unemployed workers. Between June and July of this year, Canada still lost 18,000 full-time jobs. Over the past twelve months, 75% of the jobs created were part-time.

Our statement from last week remains unchanged. The president of the Canadian Labour Congress continues to call for a national jobs strategy and leadership from government.

“The jobs market is stuck. It needs help to get back on the road to economic recovery. But our governments continue to let the tires spin and tell us we’re not stuck as deeply as the Americans. They do nothing, as more workers give up hope,” says Hassan Yussuff.

“It’s particularly unfair to young Canadians who can’t find the full-time work they need to get their lives started and build for the future – Canada’s future. The longer we wait while governments refuse to act, the longer Canada spins its wheels without leadership and a clear plan to get out of the mud and back on the road, the further we let the next generation fall behind,” says Yussuff.

Quick Analysis from CLC Senior Economist Angella MacEwen

The volatility in monthly data from the Labour Force Survey highlights the importance of taking a longer term view and analysing trends rather than monthly ups and downs. For example, even though the labour force added 42,000 jobs in July, several trends point to continued weakness in the Canadian labour market.

Compared to last July the participation rate of core age workers (25-54) has fallen by 0.6 percentage points, and there are 14,500 more unemployed workers in that age group. Full time work among this age group has fallen by nearly 60,000 jobs, with an increase of 37,300 part-time jobs.

Extending our analysis to 15-64 year old workers shows a year-over-year increase of nearly 100,000 jobs – all of them part-time. The number of unemployed workers has remained stubbornly above 1.3 million as the number of jobs added have failed to keep up with population growth.

The number of underemployed workers in Canada is virtually unchanged from the past two Julys. There were 3 million underemployed workers this July, compared to 3 million for July 2013 and 2012. One million of these were young workers between the ages of 15 and 24. The overall underemployment rate was 15.1%, and 29.3% for young workers.

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
Follow us on Twitter @CanadianLabour

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