Unemployment Inched Up In P.G. In December.
Prince George, B.C., – The unemployment rate was sitting at 7.1% in Prince George in December, an increase of 0.9 percentage points over the same month a year ago when it was 6.2%.
“The change is not statistically significant” says Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey analyst Vincent Ferrao. “In terms of people working, there were 47,300 people working last month compared to 47,200 for the same month a year ago.”
For the Cariboo region ( which includes Prince George), the unemployment rate inched up to 7.4% last month. It was 7.2% in December 2015.
B.C. continues to be the job growth leader in the nation. The provincial unemployment rate is 5.8% for December , down from the 6.7% recorded in the same month a year ago. Ferrao says there were 72 thousand more people working in B.C. last month compared to December of 2015, a job growth rate of 3.1%. “The gains were in construction, wholesale retail, finance insurance real estate and leasing, and in the accommodation and food services sectors.”
Nationally the unemployment rate was sitting at 7.1%, up slightly from the 6.9% recoded in December a year ago.
Comments
We should see another jump in unemployment in January and February as the economy slows down, and Christmas staff are laid off.
So we’re capable of producing and delivering more than 100% of what we need and desire with only 92.9% of the workforce (officially, anyways)employed? If we weren’t, then wouldn’t store shelves be running bare?
If the other 7.1% were employed, producing and delivering then STILL MORE AGAIN than the 100% we collectively need and desire, would we then be better off?
If any man’s continued ‘production’ is of no advantage to himself or his fellow man, (and if it were, wouldn’t he be employed?), then how can that man’s continued ‘consumption’ be of any disadvantage?
Why don’t we finally look at making some changes to our ‘money’ system so that it properly does what it is supposed to be able to do? REFLECT physical reality.
I think its false to assume we are all 100% satisfied and that the economy is at full capasity.
Population growth, standard of living increases, public and private consumption increases all require the economy to expand continuously to keep up with the ever increasing demand for goods and service.
Absolutely, Eye Spy. I wouldn’t ever contend that we are all “100% satisfied”, only that we are more than capable of already producing all the goods we need and desire with less than 100% of the workforce employed.
You forget about imports, we don’t produce 100% of what we consume – not even close
how can there be unemployed people? are we not bringing in foreign workers to fill the void?
They probably wont apply for nor work in those jobs
Is welfare also on the rise and at what percentage?
Seems like good news on the surface with 72,000 jobs but how many of those jobs are full-time and how many pay more than $15 an hour?
Some 27 per cent of workers in B.C. — more than 500,000 people — earn less than $15 an hour, and it’s not good for the province to have a quarter of the working population living near or below the poverty line!
How else could we explain record numbers of BC residents using food banks?
Funny, every time the minimum wage goes up there seem to be MORE people living in poverty, homeless, and using Food Banks. Now why do you suppose that is? Oh, I know, or at least I’ve been told. Those increases were all too small. Does anyone naively believe putting it up to $ 15 an hour is going to change that? And why $ 15? Why not make it $ 20? Or $ 30? How much WOULD it have to rise to before it does what the advocates of its increase still seem to think it’s going to do? Or, isn’t it a fact they don’t want to admit, that no matter how high it’s raised it’s never going to be enough?
You asked how much per hour would it take to solve this poverty and food bank problem, look at the following map of BC, it lays out “exactly”, down to the penny, how much per hour people need to make in order to live above the poverty line.
ht tp://tinyurl.com/jgkjtu2
If you want to read and learn more about a living wage, this is an excellent site that will answer many of your questions. You asked a very good question, and I answered it, don’t turn this into a debate.
ht tp://www.livingwageforfamilies.ca/what_is_living_wage
As soon as the minimum wage goes up significantly the price of goods will go up and they will no longer be above the poverty line. Have you never played lemonade stand?
slinky you key in on one variable, labour costs, just one of many variables that increase the price of goods sold to us (inflation). Obviously you know little about Matrix Calculus, where more than one variable, in fact multiple variables, are considered and used in arriving at a correct solution.
For example; what about the price of fuel, which factors into the price of goods and services being delivered to us? If transportation costs go up as a result of higher fuel prices, this would then be passed on in higher store products cost to us, the consumer. It is not just groceries and products, higher fuel prices also involves an increase in costs for any services delivered to us that requires travel. Think trains, planes and automobiles!
I really don’t think you are a one dimensional, simple minded person slinky, but you need to know the world is a much more complex, and multi-variable, place than you might be aware of. Besides, why blame any initiative that helps the working poor, people in food bank lineups, and children in poverty, for increased costs in goods and services to the rest of us who are rich enough to afford it?
Its bad optics, slinky, if I were you… I would not try to retort these facts.
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