O/T Jobs report

[OhioFisherman]

Canada lost a record 129,000 jobs last month

Fri Feb 6, 2009 4:45 PM EST

business, economy, canada

Rob Gillies, Associated Press Writer

 

TORONTO — Canada lost a record 129,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate surged more than half a point to 7.2 percent, the single-worst monthly job loss figure in the country's history.

 

The numbers are far worse than the 40,000 job losses economists expected and outpace losses in Canada's two previous recessions in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

Statistics Canada began taking a labor force survey in 1976. Danielle Zietsma, a spokeswoman for Statistics Canada, said the agency does not have comparable data from before 1976 but said January's figures are a record for the number of jobs lost in a single month. Canada's labor market was much smaller during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

 

"Nobody was even looking for anything close to this," said Craig Wright, chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada. "Perhaps firms are looking at the gloom around the global economy, and all the gloom in the U.S. and saying even if we haven't felt it just yet, it's coming so let's get ready for it."

 

Wright said the country is witnessing a complete collapse in confidence and unprecedented uncertainty.

 

"It's just big, sharp and ugly," Wright said.

 

Wright said the U.S.-equivalent based on labor market size would be 1.3 million jobs lost. He said that the U.S. labor market is about 10 times the size of Canada's.

 

"In that sense the U.S. actually outperformed Canada," he said.

 

The U.S. lost 598,000 jobs in January, the most since the end of 1974, with the unemployment rate jumping to 7.6 percent.

 

Statistics Canada reported Friday that the cuts in Canada brought to 213,000 the number of jobs the economy has shed in the past three months. That wiped out all the jobs gained from earlier in 2008.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his Conservative government would not alter its $32 billion economic stimulus package unveiled last month despite the dire jobs report.

 

"We will not be blown off track every time there is some bad news," Harper said when asked about opposition calls to expand the stimulus program.

 

"We cannot have in Parliament, quite frankly, instability every week and every month, every time there's a new number, people demanding a different plan. This is a massive stimulus plan."

 

Harper said he anticipates more job losses to come but said the more troubling news came from the United States which posted even larger job losses than the previous month. Canada's economy is largely dependent on what happens in the United States. Nearly 80 percent of Canada's trade is with its southern neighbor.

 

"The United States remains the epicenter of this particular crisis and this remains very troubling," Harper said.

 

The financial crisis and the global sell-off of commodities have hit Canada hard. The central bank is predicting economic output will contract 4.8 percent in the first quarter.

 

The drop in employment was most pronounced in manufacturing, which suffered the largest monthly decline on record, with 101,000 jobs lost.

 

"That's an unbelievably large decline in every sense of the word. It's phenomenal in terms of how sharp that has come off," Wright said.

 

Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets, said many of the layoff notices announced in recent months were put into effect. Shenfeld said they knew hundreds of thousands of job losses were on their way but predicting exactly how many will show up in any given month is virtually impossible.

 

Unlike the U.S. there is no weekly data on unemployment benefit claims in Canada that can be used to gauge how quickly jobs are being lost.

 

Statistics Canada said Ontario's auto sector, where the Detroit automakers have major operations, took the brunt of the cuts but didn't release the exact number. The forestry sectors in British Columbia and Quebec, which are heavily dependent on U.S. homebuilders, were also hit hard.

 

Ontario, the center of manufacturing in Canada, lost 71,000 jobs in January. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he is looking at changing the welfare rules to allow more people to apply. Claims have seen a sharp uptick since the end of 2008.

 

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan called the jobless numbers "deeply troubling," and said he hopes it will prompt the federal government to widen unemployment insurance benefits.

 

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Canadians should expect further job losses.

 

"The United States economy has not hit bottom. The U.S. housing situation continues to deteriorate so Canadians ought to expect that this is going to be a difficult year," Flaherty said.

 

He urged Parliament to acclerate the legislation process so that the stimulus package is passed and said they already lengthened the amount of time unemployed people will be able to collect insurance if they are laid off to 50 weeks from 45 weeks.

 

He had hinted at the bad news on Thursday when he described the figures to be released as "regrettable."

 

TD Bank economist Derek Burleton, who earlier this week presented the gloomiest forecast to date in predicting 325,000 job losses in Canada during 2009, said he was shocked that the country is already one-third of the way there after one month.

 

"There is no sugarcoating this," Scotia Capital economist Derek Holt said.

 

"Normally when you get that kind of surprise you immediately look beneath the print for some encouraging details, but there weren't any," Holt said. "This was an all-around bad report."

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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[Spiel]

It's not purdy round here these days, can't even find solitude on the ice during the week!

 

I was informed back in December that my services (30 years worth) were no longer required and was layed off for an indefinite period of time......

 

From the Hamilton Spectator....

 

In Hamilton, the unemployment rate jumped to 8 per cent in January, from 7 per cent in December. Statistics Canada says 8,000 jobs have disappeared in the city since October. Among the hardest hit have been Hamilton's steelworkers -- people such as Brock McCulloch, who was handed a layoff notice after putting in 28 years at U.S. Steel Canada's Hamilton plant.

[hotrod]

I'm sorry to hear about those who lose their jobs, that must be an awful thing to go through but the economy will come back, everything works in a cycle. Thankfully it hasn't got that bad here in the near north, I saw some stats this morning and the Sudbury unemployment rate is around 5.5% and holding but who knows what can happen. I wish the media would stop with all the chicken little crap and references to the great depression, it makes things worse with all the negativity and shatters confidence. There's no need to throw money at it either, does anyone remember Boob Rae? This is nowhere near the great depression where there was a 25% unemployment rate and a different economy entirely, I wish the MSM would shutup already.

[kemper]

The panic really needs to stop. How do we expect to pull out of this mess when the media is predicting armageddon all day.

 

Yes, its brutal but the added doom and gloom of the media is not making this any better

[Radnine]

So, let me get this straight; You ship most of the manufacturing off-shore so that nobody has work or money anymore. They in-turn, don't buy anything off of other people, so they loose their jobs as well.

Boy who could have seen that coming?

I am not trying to be a smart a$$ about this, or be disrespectful to those that have lost their jobs. But I am galled that people act surprised at all of this. I also can't believe that people talk about a turn around like it is just a matter of flipping a switch.

People need jobs to have money to buy goods and services, that gives other people jobs and pays the country's bills. Period.

I keep hearing about investing in technology as an answer. Here is a news flash: Technology looses way more jobs than it creates (at least in the manufacturing sector). To get extreme, we need to get rid of the robots and put people back to work. Robots don't pay taxes, people do.

Nostalgically yours,

Jim

[OhioFisherman]

Jim I agree to an extent, not really the robots causing the problems. China has laid off over 20 million, told them to leave the cities and return home, so it is hitting every where. Those people probably wouldn`t have had jobs to begin with if ours hadn`t been shipped there.

 

The numbers used here by our government are smoke and mirrors, not factual numbers, the true numbers here are much higher. They changed the way they figure them during the Reagan years.

[holdfast]

The panic really needs to stop. How do we expect to pull out of this mess when the media is predicting armageddon all day.

 

Yes, its brutal but the added doom and gloom of the media is not making this any better

 

Boy do I really agree with you 1,000 percent. Fact is that Stimulus Package is all about Ontario and Quebec. The rest of the Country is doing OK, You listen to Jack and you think that all of Canada is Hopping on trains and unemployment is 30 percent and everyone is starving in the Streets. Fact is, he sponges off the poor. Look at his riding and his wife's Chow. Thanks to Internet and Media, this will turn worse than the (90s recession and 80s thanks to media. Thanks for pointing that out, and CBC is the worst. That creep got less than 14 percent vote and hes always in the News. That would never happen in the States.

Edited February 8, 2009 by holdfast

[crappieperchhunter]

Another concern I have with this recession is companies like mine are taking advantage of the fear and taking things from employees because no one who has a job is doing much complaining now. The companies know disgruntled employees are not likely to leave for greener pastures so they are sticking it to us.

 

Cuts in pension plans, benefits packages, no raises as well as forcing employees to take on more responsibility without any pay increase to go along with it. I understand that a company has to do what it has to do...but where I work I believe my employer is taking advantage of the current economic climate and sticking it to us....cause they can. I mean not even a Christmas Dinner this year. Swiss Chalet or Pizza Pizza for 60 employees is what we usually get. You just can not convince me that taking this away from us is going to have any financial impact on a company that makes millions maybe billions of dollars a year and pays the top executives 7 figure incomes.

 

For all those who are going through the hardship of a job loss, I wish you all the best in getting through this mess our economy is in. Hang in there and good luck.

[Tarzan's Jane]

I get more ticked off at people who don't want to hear it....it may not be happening to you but it's happening to many, MANY...and it's only just begun.

 

I recently received a statement of my investments....yes I lost, like oh so many.

 

Am I going to go and spend....nope. Will I give to the foodbank....yep.

[kemper]

I get more ticked off at people who don't want to hear it....it may not be happening to you but it's happening to many, MANY...and it's only just begun.

 

I recently received a statement of my investments....yes I lost, like oh so many.

 

Am I going to go and spend....nope. Will I give to the foodbank....yep.

 

I dont think for most (for me anyways) its that we dont want to hear it, I just think the media needs to cut down on the scare tactics. The more afraid people are the less money they are going to spend. When employed people don't spend money, other employed people become unemployed.

 

 

edit* I guess I need to point out that I see all this from the perspective of an economics student, not as someone who is worried about loss of a job. It is actually a quite interesting thing to study cause/effect wise, but I do realize that I lack the 'real life' experience on this one.

Edited February 9, 2009 by kemper

[Tarzan's Jane]

It's all good kemper

 

And I guess I am just a tad sore from having thousands of my money spent by 'them' and feeling pressured to spend more!!! For the next little while it will have to come down to self-preservation with helping as best I can.