economy
GROWING UN– AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT Rising unemployment reflects a segment of our population that wants to work but can’t find jobs—though they aren’t the only ones experiencing labour market challenges.
As the unemployment rate has been on the rise of late, it has reflected a rise in the number of unemployed people. This is stating the obvious, but unemployed persons are also a specific measure from Statistics Canada, namely they are people without a job but actively looking for work and therefore still a labour force participant. Adults who aren’t looking for work, for various reasons such as going to school, being retired, and taking care of a family member aren’t included in unemployment. Discouraged workers, those who want to work but aren’t actively looking because they believe no suitable work
is available, are likewise excluded and their numbers have also been growing. Alongside unemployment has been a growing trend of underemployment as well, that is the number of persons working part-time but who wish to work full-time. The number of these workers has increased by 13% over the past 12 months, while discouraged workers have grown by 81%, and unemployed persons by 18%. That each of these metrics is moving in the same direction is another indication of a softening labour market.
WANTED: MORE WORK
1,400,000
1,297,100
1,100,800
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
615,200
600,000
543,700
400,000
200,000
15,100 27,300
0
UNEMPLOYMENT
DISCOURAGED
PART TIME, WANTED FULL TIME
FEBRUARY
FEBRUARY
DATA: UNEMPLOYMENT, DISCOURAGED WORKERS, PART-TIME WORKERS WHO WANT FULL-TIME WORK, MONTHLY, SEASONALLY-UNADJUSTED, CANADA SOURCE: LABOUR FORCE SURVEY & TABLE 14-10-0017-01, 14-10-0028-01 & 14-10-0127-01, STATISTICS CANADA
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