Employment: No Recovery Yet

"There are one million one-hundred and twelve thousand unemployed Canadian women and men who find little solace in today's report on the job market," says Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress about today's Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey. (See below detailed analysis by the Canadian Labour Congress' Senior Economist Sylvain Schetagne.)

Following the dismal numbers for the month of July, the Canadian Labour Congress warns that the August employment statistics show no sign of recovery.

"Do our governments care that in our major urban areas, steady goods-producing employment has been declining for six years without any sign of recovery? Between November 2002 and July 2008, Toronto has lost 93,000 jobs, Montreal lost 70,000 jobs, Edmonton lost 16,000 jobs, Victoria lost 5,100, Halifax 1,700. This is a national crisis. On the eve of a federal election we want candidates to focus on the need of a forceful jobs strategy, a Made-in-Canada plan to sustain and create jobs here," explains Georgetti.

The unemployment numbers - Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey reports that, last month, August 2008, the unemployment remained steady at 6.1%, just like in July as the economy is not creating enough jobs to occupy everyone who is seeking employment. Last month, in seasonally-adjusted numbers, there were 1,112,500 Canadians who wanted to work but did not have a job. That is 7,300 more than in July, although, in August, the survey says there was a net creation of 15,200 jobs.

Senior Economist Sylvain Schetagne's Analysis

- Despite the upward movement in August, employment is far from recovering from the slide that begun in early summer 2008. Indeed since June 2008, Canada has a net loss of 40,000 jobs.

- So far, employment growth in 2008 has not reached half of the pace we have known in 2007. Since the beginning of the year, Canada created 87,000 jobs compared to 221,000 jobs during the same period last year. This is an increase of 0.5% of employment while working age population has increased by 0.8% during the same period. In other words, many among those who are now entering the job market, are not finding work.

- The setbacks in employment are happening in the public sector, which had done well in recent years. In August alone, 23,900 jobs were lost in the public sector, particularly in health care, social assistance and public administration.

- The manufacturing sector shows a marked decline that still very much impacts the working families of all our major urban areas. From November 2002 to July 2008, there were losses of 93,000 manufacturing jobs in the Toronto area, of 70,000 jobs in the Greater Montreal, 17,000 in Windsor, 16,000 in Hamilton and in Edmonton, Victoria lost 5,100, Halifax 1,700. These are significant and meaningful numbers for each of these areas. In fact, 10 out of 27 major urban areas lost more than 20% of their jobs in the manufacturing sector since November 2002. Among them Sherbrooke, Oshawa, Thunder Bay and Victoria.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada's national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca

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