In Stockwell Day’s weekly column for Kelowna.com, the new Treasury Board President states that January represented the “fourth straight month in a row” that jobs were created. In today’s column he wrote:
“Jobs up…again. It’s true. The employment numbers released on Friday showed an increase of 43,000 more people into the workforce. That’s the fourth straight month in a row of increases.”
Reality: Here are the monthly job reports from Statistics Canada’s website, going back to October:
October: “Following two months of moderate growth, employment decreased by 43,000 in October, all in part-time. This drop pushed the unemployment rate up 0.2 percentage points to 8.6%.”
November: “Employment rose by 79,000 in November, bringing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 8.5%. Despite November’s gain, employment was 321,000 (-1.9%) below the peak of October 2008.”
December: “Following a large increase in November, employment was unchanged in December and the unemployment rate remained at 8.5%. In the last nine months, employment has stabilized but remains 323,000 (-1.9%) below the October 2008 peak.”
January: “Employment increased by 43,000 in January, all in part time, pushing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 8.3%. January marks the fourth employment gain in six months.”
The bottom line: Despite the recent increases in lower-quality jobs, employment still remains 280,000 jobs below where it was in October 2008. Not quite the rosy picture Minister Day tried to paint when he likewise declared last July that the “recession is finally over.”
