mr.x
Feb 6, 2009, 10:38 PM
B.C. loses a record 68,000 full-time jobs in January
By Paul Vieira, Financial Post with Vancouver Sun Files
February 6, 2009 1:01 PM
B.C. shed a record 68,000 full-time jobs in January as part of a massive labour shift that saw full-time employment plunge while part-time employment increased.
Statistics Canada said Friday that the loss of 68,000 full-time jobs - nearly all in manufacturing and construction - was offset by a 33,000 gain in part-time employment.
That left 35,000 British Columbians without a job, also a record decline for one month.
The previous record for total job losses in one month was 26,000 in February 2004.
Currently, unemployment in B.C. sits at 6.1 per cent, up from 5.3 percent in December, and up sharply from March 2008's all-time low of 3.8 per cent.
The manufacturing and construction sectors accounted for nearly all of the total job losses. Construction jobs in B.C. peaked last September. Since then 32,000 construction jobs have been axed.
In January, adult men over age 25 were hit the hardest with 18,000 job losses, or a 1.2-per-cent increase in unemployment from December. Adult women lost 11,000 jobs, a 0.5-per-cent increase.
According to Statistics Canada, unemployment rates only include people who are available and looking for a job. They do not include "discouraged workers," who are not seeking work. The highest unemployment rate recorded in B.C. was 14.1 per cent in 1987.
Meanwhile,the Canadian economy lost a startling 129,000 jobs in January almost all full-time positions and a record single-month total, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
This brings the cumulative total for the last three months to 213,000 and pushes the unemployment rate to 7.2 per cent from 6.6 per cent.
"This is a bad report all across the range," said Derek Holt, vice-president of economics at Scotia Capital. "The time to be an optimist falls by the wayside with a report like this."
The single-month record loss was just over three times the consensus estimate of 40,000 among Bay Street economists. The economy lost 63,000 jobs and 20,000 jobs, respectively, in November and December.
"The recession deepened at the start of 2009 and we are likely to see the jobless rate rise above eight per cent by year end," BMO Capital Markets said in a note to clients, adding this "bleak" report will likely prompt the Bank of Canada to cut its key benchmark lending rate, at one per cent, at its next decision date in March.
Statistics Canada said the drop in employment was most pronounced in manufacturing, where the net loss totalled 101,000. There were declines in a number of other industries as well. The only industry with notable gains was health care and social assistance, where employment increased by 31,000.
Canada's three largest provinces accounted for the entire employment decrease in January, with Ontario recording its single biggest one-month loss, 71,000, in three decades. January's data pushes that province's unemployment rate to eight per cent, the highest since November, 1997. Statistics Canada added that the province has lost 125,000 jobs since October.
There were also large declines in both British Columbia, 35,000, and Quebec, 26,000. Employment was little changed in all other provinces.
A report this week from the economics team at Toronto-Dominion Bank indicated that the country stands to lose 325,000 jobs in 2009 as major industries slash production in response to weaker demand, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.8 per cent. Meanwhile, Bank of Nova Scotia forecasts job losses of 220,00 this year with the unemployment rate settling at eight per cent.
The recent federal budget said the stimulus measures would create or maintain 190,000 jobs. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in the budget that the government would introduce further stimuli if required, a point he repeated Thursday in advance of the jobs report.
Holt said new data raises more doubt about the optimism expressed by the Bank of Canada in its last monetary policy update, in which it suggested the economy would rebound by a robust 3.8 per cent in 2010.
"We are going to dig a deeper pit in the near-term and have a muted recovery," said Holt, whose bank projects the Canadian economy will shrink 1.6 per cent in 2009 — compared to the Bank of Canada's 1.2 per cent — and post a modest gain of 1.6 per cent in 2010.
On Wednesday, Hudson's Bay Co. — Canada's oldest retail company and now owned by a U.S. group — announced that it would cut 1,000 jobs across the country because of "challenging economic times."
A day later, Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. said it was eliminating 1,360 jobs, or about 4.5 per cent of its worldwide workforce, because of slowing demand for its business jet models. Also Thursday, Montreal-based Domtar Corp. said it would cut its paper manufacturing operations in North Carolina, eliminating 185 employees, due to declining orders caused by the downturn.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
By Paul Vieira, Financial Post with Vancouver Sun Files
February 6, 2009 1:01 PM
B.C. shed a record 68,000 full-time jobs in January as part of a massive labour shift that saw full-time employment plunge while part-time employment increased.
Statistics Canada said Friday that the loss of 68,000 full-time jobs - nearly all in manufacturing and construction - was offset by a 33,000 gain in part-time employment.
That left 35,000 British Columbians without a job, also a record decline for one month.
The previous record for total job losses in one month was 26,000 in February 2004.
Currently, unemployment in B.C. sits at 6.1 per cent, up from 5.3 percent in December, and up sharply from March 2008's all-time low of 3.8 per cent.
The manufacturing and construction sectors accounted for nearly all of the total job losses. Construction jobs in B.C. peaked last September. Since then 32,000 construction jobs have been axed.
In January, adult men over age 25 were hit the hardest with 18,000 job losses, or a 1.2-per-cent increase in unemployment from December. Adult women lost 11,000 jobs, a 0.5-per-cent increase.
According to Statistics Canada, unemployment rates only include people who are available and looking for a job. They do not include "discouraged workers," who are not seeking work. The highest unemployment rate recorded in B.C. was 14.1 per cent in 1987.
Meanwhile,the Canadian economy lost a startling 129,000 jobs in January almost all full-time positions and a record single-month total, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
This brings the cumulative total for the last three months to 213,000 and pushes the unemployment rate to 7.2 per cent from 6.6 per cent.
"This is a bad report all across the range," said Derek Holt, vice-president of economics at Scotia Capital. "The time to be an optimist falls by the wayside with a report like this."
The single-month record loss was just over three times the consensus estimate of 40,000 among Bay Street economists. The economy lost 63,000 jobs and 20,000 jobs, respectively, in November and December.
"The recession deepened at the start of 2009 and we are likely to see the jobless rate rise above eight per cent by year end," BMO Capital Markets said in a note to clients, adding this "bleak" report will likely prompt the Bank of Canada to cut its key benchmark lending rate, at one per cent, at its next decision date in March.
Statistics Canada said the drop in employment was most pronounced in manufacturing, where the net loss totalled 101,000. There were declines in a number of other industries as well. The only industry with notable gains was health care and social assistance, where employment increased by 31,000.
Canada's three largest provinces accounted for the entire employment decrease in January, with Ontario recording its single biggest one-month loss, 71,000, in three decades. January's data pushes that province's unemployment rate to eight per cent, the highest since November, 1997. Statistics Canada added that the province has lost 125,000 jobs since October.
There were also large declines in both British Columbia, 35,000, and Quebec, 26,000. Employment was little changed in all other provinces.
A report this week from the economics team at Toronto-Dominion Bank indicated that the country stands to lose 325,000 jobs in 2009 as major industries slash production in response to weaker demand, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.8 per cent. Meanwhile, Bank of Nova Scotia forecasts job losses of 220,00 this year with the unemployment rate settling at eight per cent.
The recent federal budget said the stimulus measures would create or maintain 190,000 jobs. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in the budget that the government would introduce further stimuli if required, a point he repeated Thursday in advance of the jobs report.
Holt said new data raises more doubt about the optimism expressed by the Bank of Canada in its last monetary policy update, in which it suggested the economy would rebound by a robust 3.8 per cent in 2010.
"We are going to dig a deeper pit in the near-term and have a muted recovery," said Holt, whose bank projects the Canadian economy will shrink 1.6 per cent in 2009 — compared to the Bank of Canada's 1.2 per cent — and post a modest gain of 1.6 per cent in 2010.
On Wednesday, Hudson's Bay Co. — Canada's oldest retail company and now owned by a U.S. group — announced that it would cut 1,000 jobs across the country because of "challenging economic times."
A day later, Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. said it was eliminating 1,360 jobs, or about 4.5 per cent of its worldwide workforce, because of slowing demand for its business jet models. Also Thursday, Montreal-based Domtar Corp. said it would cut its paper manufacturing operations in North Carolina, eliminating 185 employees, due to declining orders caused by the downturn.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun