Jobless Rate Drops, But Some Left Workforce
Friday, November 2, 2012 @ 8:18 AM
Prince George, BC – While the jobless rate dropped slightly in Prince George last month, there were fewer people in the workforce.
The unemployment rate in October was 6.6-percent, compared to 6.9-percent in September. But the active labour force in the city was down by about 200 people.
In British Columbia, the same holds true. While the UE rate in October was 6.5-percent, compared to 6.8-percent, there 13-thousand fewer people in the workforce.
Nationally, the jobless rate held stable at 7.3-percent last month, compared to 7.1-percent. October’s rate is unchanged from one year ago.
Comments
So much for stats! BCTV just reported on their news that BC lost over 1000 net jobs; the most in Canada.
They’re just setting the stage for the Chinese invasion! .
Dragon Master, too late
I would be happy with an MLA jobless rate of about 70%
So we know that there were fewer people in the labour force who are either working or unemployed.
We do not know how many were working. We also do not know how many were unemployed. All we know is that the rate of unemployed (the number of unemployed as a portion of the total labour force) dropped.
We also do not know whether the labour force shrank as a result of people who had a job retiring (after all we are getting older and that will happen more often in the future), were fired, were laid off, took maternity leave, etc.
The other thing we have absolutely no measurement of is whether the productivity stayed the same or dropped or increased over that period. In other words, are we still putting out the same products quantity/quality of goods and services while reducing the workforce?
After all, that should be the idea of such organizational self evaluations as core services whether it is for public or private organizations. The ideal end is the same quality/quantity of goods and services with less labour costs.
In fact, the other thing that the labour stats do not show is the change in outsourcing. When employment decreases, is it because work in the region was sent to another region, within the province, within Canada, outside of Canada?
I think if one was to project a trend and what it means to the economy of a community, much more information is required to make a determination of what is happening.
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