Morning business file: Unemployment up (9 a.m.)
edmontonjournal.comPublished: Friday, February 09, 2007
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/local/story.html?id=afdc57e7-2102-4351-a818-4a2c9dffd0d3&k=0
Summary
Canada’s economy continues to improve, producing 89 000 more jobs in January. However, unemployment rate increased to 6.2% from 6.1% in December because of an influx of job-seekers. Statistics Canada said together British Columbia and Alberta produced a total of 56 000 more jobs, powering the national employment growth. Alberta unemployment rate was unchanged. A record of 63.4% of working-age Canadians held part time and full time jobs in January. Since October, almost two-thirds of the employment has been increased by part time jobs. Jobs in information and recreation, professional and scientific services, hotels and restaurants and natural resources account for the increase in January jobs. 32 000 of British Columbia jobs came from the skiing industry, where favorable snow conditions attracted many people. Alberta’s 24 000 jobs were mostly full time. However, due to the influx of job seekers, unemployment rate in Alberta did not decline. The province produced many more jobs in areas such as performing arts, recreation and gambling, manufacturing and natural resources. Ontario’s unemployment rate rose from 6.1% to 6.4% because more people are in search for jobs. While Quebec produced 15 000 jobs, unemployment rate increased to 7.7% as more people sought jobs.
Relationship and Reflection
The article addressed the different types of unemployment we studied in this chapter. The fact that many jobs are produced in Canada, yet unemployment rate still increased is because of frictional unemployment. This type of unemployment is of short duration and the individual is expected to find a job quickly. Frictional unemployment tends to be higher when economic conditions are good. In this article, the economy is doing well because plenty of jobs are available. When such condition is present, people will be searching for jobs, or leave one job to look for a better one. Frictional unemployment is also known as the job-search unemployment. The mass increase of job searchers could possibly be graduates from college and university. It takes time for them to acquire information about the jobs that can utilize their skills. Because they are looking for jobs, they are classified as unemployed at this moment. More people are unemployed than employed, so unemployment rate increased. Also, many people are working part time so there is a measure of hidden unemployment in this classification because these individuals are not working as many hours as they would like and they are not contributing fully to the Canadian economy. Also, these part time workers may be considered as underemployed because they may be employed but not at jobs that fully utilize their skills. These unemployment rates are measured in January, so seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is taken into account. All these are taken into consideration to produce accurate unemployment rates.
When summer arrives, more jobs will be available and employment rate is likely to increase. This is because more teenagers will be in search for jobs in the summer. For example, playland and PNE hire over hundreds of students in the summer. There's also lots of sales associates positions available at stores. Also areas such as constructions, tourism, recreation and agriculture will produce more jobs, thus increasing employment rate. However, the same thing in the article might happen again. Becuase of the increased amount of job searchers, there isn't enough jobs for all of them so frictional unemployment will result and the unemployment rate will increase. Let's just hope that won't happen!
posted by wini_lao @ 5:27 PM
4 Comments:
I agree that employment is going to go up by the time summer comes around. I worked at playland last year and I think I'm going back. They hire so many people. I think part-time employment should not be considered as underemployed. Just because they are contributing to the economy less frequently doesn't mean they don't make an impact. So many student are part-time employed.
Unemployment rate doesn't really indicate how the economy is doing because there are so many factors that take part. Like you said frictional unemployment add to the unemployment rate but that type of unemployment is usualy short lived. Also, frictional unemployment could actually indicate a good economy because they're looking for better jobs that are availiable.
^ Carrie Lam
Summer time definitly will have a higher employment rate since students will have their summer holidays. When there are more people shopping, then stores will need more people working. There is where the jobs come from.
I disagree with what carrie said above about why frictional unemployment shouldn't be counted into the unemployment rate. Most people should know to keep your job before you find your new one. So if they haven't find their new job yet, but they already quit their jobs already. I think they're just slacking off and maybe taking a break. Finding a job to me is like, and excuse of not working.
Yeah our economy is improving, and especially with the 2010 Winter Olympics coming up, many of our sectors such as tourism and construction should be booming. But after the Olympics end, it remains to be seen if Vancouver will end up like other cities like Montreal, and become completely saddled with debt.
I agree with you about summer jobs as well; Playland always hires thousands of people, and students make up a large part of this summer workforce. I find your concept of a “hidden unemployment” interesting, because it’s true that while these people are holding down jobs, they’re not really being employed to the best of their ability, and should probably be looking for a job better suited to their skill sets.
Grace L
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