Canada gained surprising 79,000 jobs in November December 6, 2009
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Canada added 79,000 jobs last month as the country’s unemployment rate dipped 0.1 percentage points to 8.5 per cent.
A student at checks out a bulletin board with job postings in October. The Canadian economy added 79,000 jobs in November, Statistics Canada said.(Al Behrman/Associated Press)
Statistics Canada said Friday that full-time employment increased by 39,000 in November, the third consecutive monthly increase, while part-time employment grew by 40,000, following two months of declines.
The job growth far surpassed the consensus expectations of economists, who had been projecting the creation of 15,000 jobs, and for the unemployment rate to rise to 8.7 per cent.
Calling the jobs report “stunning,” a TD Economics report took particular note of how broad-based the gains were.
“We can’t help but be encouraged by the fact that all provinces [except Manitoba, and marginally so] were posting employment gains as of November.”
“Unless productivity cratered, the data suggest decent and regionally based gains in real GDP in Q4,” the report said.
In October, the country shed 43,200 jobs as the national unemployment rate came in at 8.6 per cent.
Statistics Canada said almost all the job growth last month was attributable to the service sector, which added 73,000 jobs. Within that sector, roughly 38,000 positions were created in educational services.
Employment in the goods-producing sector showed little change in November.
In the provinces
Ontario added 27,000 jobs in November ? the largest gain in the province since September 2008. The province’s unemployment rate, however, remained unchanged at 9.3 per cent.
In Quebec, employment grew by 21,000 in November, pushing the province’s unemployment rate down 0.4 percentage points to 8.1 per cent.
Employment in Alberta rose by 13,000 last month, the largest monthly increase in the province since October 2008.
The Royal Bank of Canada was cautiously optimistic on the report, but was not prepared to downplay the threat of unemployment moving forward.
“The labour data have been very volatile but, on net, 66,500 jobs were created in the three months to November, which supports our call for more robust growth in the fourth quarter,” RBC economist Dawn Desjardins said.
Rogers cuts 900 jobs November 26, 2009
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Rogers Communications announced Thursday it is laying off 900 employees across Canada.
Canada’s biggest cable company, Rogers Communications Inc., is cutting about three per cent of its workforce.(Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
Terrie Tweddle, vice-president of corporate communications at Rogers, told CBC News the job losses “represent a very small percentage of our workforce” and that “the primary focus of the job losses are actually at the executive and management levels.”
Rogers said in October it was moving to streamline operations and to contend with rivals. Tweddle said the layoffs represent three per cent of the company’s total workforce of 30,000 staff across the country.
Independent technology analyst Carmi Levy told CBC News he was “not at all” surprised by the layoffs, given that investors wanted costs cut.
Predicts rivals will cut jobs, too
“Rogers, in particular, as the dominant player, has been under some significant pressure over the last year,” he said. Levy predicted rivals Telus and Bell would also cut staff, especially as competition picks up as new entrants come into the industry in 2010 after an auction of new wireless spectrum.
“What was considered sufficiently lean a year ago or two years ago is no longer lean enough,” he said.
He said Rogers would have to be careful about making any future cuts.
Customer service could be affected
“Because most of these layoffs are focused mostly on middle and upper management, you’re probably not going to notice a whole lot in the short term, but clearly, if this is a precursor to subsequent waves of cutbacks, customer service could potentially be affected in the long run.”
Tweddle said the company would continue to hire people, especially in customer service.
The company owns Canada’s largest wireless phone service, as well as Rogers Cable, numerous publications and broadcast outlets, and the Toronto Blue Jays. In September, the company announced plans to further integrate its cable and wireless businesses to better respond to its customers.
The job cuts come as Rogers faces heated competition from established rivals Bell and Telus and new entrants who plan to offer cheaper wireless airtime packages.
With files from The Canadian Press (more…)
Canada sheds 43,200 jobs in October November 6, 2009
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Canada’s unemployment rate rose slightly in October, with the economy shedding 43,200 jobs in the month.
The rate was up two-10ths of a percentage point to 8.6 per cent in October from 8.4 per cent the previous month, Statistics Canada said Friday.
The jobs lost were all part-time. That means employment is now down a total of 400,000 jobs, or 2.3 per cent, since a year ago.
Province October unemployment rate September unemployment rate
N.L. 17 15.3
P.E.I. 12 11.8
N.S. 9.3 9.5
N.B. 8.5 8.1
Que. 8.5 8.8
Ont. 9.3 9.2
Man. 5.8 5.3
Sask. 5.3 4.6
Alta. 7.5 7.1
B.C. 8.3 7.4
The latest job loss figures were a surprise to economists, who had been expecting a 10,000-job gain in October after Canada’s economy added positions in August and September.
“While this is only the first indicator for Q4, it introduces some downside risk to the Bank of Canada’s call for 3.3 per cent annualized real GDP growth in the quarter,” BMO analyst Benjamin Reitzes said in a note.
“While employment is still higher over the past three months, the big decline in October highlights the sluggish nature of the recovery.”
October’s weak result would have been worse without the self-employed, the ranks of which swelled by 28,000 during the month. A surge in self-employment is often an indication of lower-paying work, CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld said.
“The earlier run-up may have, in part, been statistical noise, ” he said.
Considering the spike in self-employment, the number of employees with jobs in October fell a massive 70,700.
Regional differences
The largest job losses came in Alberta and B.C., with losses of 15,000 and 13,000, respectively. Employment fell by 4,000 full-time jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador during the month.
An employment counsellor advises job seekers in Grande Prairie, Alta., in March. Canada’s unemployment rate hit 8.6 per cent in October, Statistics Canada said.(CBC)
There were 3,400 fewer jobs in Manitoba during the month, and employment was essentially flat in Ontario and Quebec. But since the downturn began in October 2008, Ontario has shed 206,000 jobs, more than half of which have come in the manufacturing sector. Quebec has lost 62,000 in that time.
If there was good news, it was a marginal increase in full-time employment.
And average hourly wages were up 3.3 per cent in October compared with the same month in 2008.
Construction jobs also edged up, as did transportation and warehousing, while the weak manufacturing sector was mostly unchanged.
680 Nortel employees offered Ericsson jobs September 11, 2009
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The company that bought Nortel’s wireless division has offered jobs to 680 former Nortel employees in Ottawa.
Swedish telecom giant Ericsson confirmed Thursday that it had issued the job offers, which would allow the employees to continue work in Ottawa under the Ericsson banner. However, the move does not create any new jobs.
The employees have until the end of day to accept the offers.
Nortel, a telecommunications company that was once the crown jewel of Canada’s high-technology sector, filed for bankruptcy protection in January in Canada and the United States. It is currently selling off its assets.
Courts in both countries approved the sale of Nortel’s wireless assets to Ericsson for $1.13 billion US in July.
A court-supervised auction for Nortel’s enterprise unit takes place Friday.
Suncor trims 1,000 jobs after merger September 8, 2009
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Suncor Energy’s CEO Rick George (left) shakes hands with Petro-Canada’s CEO Ron Brenneman on a March 2009 merger deal to create Canada’s largest oil company.(CBC)
Suncor Energy Inc. expects to shed 1,000 jobs by next month as a result of the company’s recent merger with Petro-Canada, the firm reported Thursday.
The Calgary-based company said last March that it would save $300 million in operating expenditures and $1 billion in capital expenditures annually following the merger with Petro-Canada.
“Unfortunately, bringing two large businesses together has also meant that some of the efficiencies are necessarily through workforce reductions,” said Suncor’s president and CEO Rick George. “It?s been difficult, but we’ve said from the start that this would be the case and worked hard to keep employees informed and to move quickly to build the new organization.”
In a statement issued Thursday, Suncor said it expects about 1,000 people will leave the company by mid-October through layoffs, retirements and discontinuation of contract positions. “The majority of these layoffs have already occurred and Suncor has committed to inform employees of their status, including movement into new jobs and confirmation of existing positions, by mid-September,” the company said.
Most of the job losses among the 13,000 employees will be contract positions and head office jobs in human resources and IT, a spokesman said. “At this point most people have either been offered a new role in the organization or confirmed in their existing role,” said Suncor spokesman Brad Bellows. “Or if they’re leaving the organization they know that as well. Most people that are leaving have already left.”
Suncor and its U.K. subsidiary have proposed that responsibility for managing the company?s international and offshore business will move to Calgary from London. “This proposal and resulting staffing decisions are subject to a consultation period of up to 90 days as required by United Kingdom legislation.”
?We expect the benefits of this merger to become increasingly clear to our shareholders, business partners and Canadians,? the company said.
The merger with Petro-Canada closed on Aug. 1.
Suncor says it has been reviewing its portfolio of potential growth projects to determine the best opportunities and optimal timing of projects to be developed based on expected rates of return, near-term cash flow potential and business risk.
Canada gains 27,100 jobs in August September 7, 2009
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Canada’s economy showed signs of coming out of recession in August, creating a surprisingly strong 27,100 jobs as the country’s private sector added workers for the first month in nearly a year.
But Canada’s unemployment actually rose in the month by one-10th of a percentage point to 8.7 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday.
That was because more people flooded the job market ? 49,100 ? in August than found work, increasing the number of men and women on the unemployment lines.
Still, the country’s statistical agency said, Canada’s employment market has improved in recent months simply because the rate of job loss has slowed since April.
“Over the last five months, employment has fallen by 31,000, a much smaller decline than the 357,000 observed during the five months following October 2008,” Statistics Canada said.
Unexpected turn
Economists had predicted that the Canadian economy would shed approximately 15,000 jobs in August rather than add employment as was the case.
Cdn. private-sector job growth (000s)
Aug. +49.2
July -74.9
June -39.3
May -36.5
April -10.4
Source: Statistics Canada
But analysts have cautioned in the past about reading too much into any one-month survey, pointing out that the national agency in April reported 35,900 job gains in the middle of a severe slump, only to take them all away in May.
In April, the number of self-employed persons jumped by 37,000, swamping the job losses reported by corporations.
In addition, the amount of full-time employment continued to fall in August, down another 3,500 jobs, but an improvement over July’s tumble of almost 30,000 for 40-hour-a-week work.
Economists often argue that as companies come out of a financial downturn, they add part-time workers at a faster pace than full-time employees.
Reinforcing recent numbers
In the past couple of months, experts have pointed to gathering evidence that the industrialized economies have begun to grow rather than contract as has been the case for the past year.
For August, the U.S. Institute for Supply Management’s index of future activity in the service sector rose to the “expansionary” category. In Canada, the service sector represents almost 80 per cent of total employment.
The Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development also improved its 2009 forecast for many industrialized economies, predicting that the current contraction would be marginally less severe than initially expected.
The improved figures now have some economists talking more confidently in terms of a world financial recovery.
“The global economy is regaining traction, with virtually every region transitioning from recession to recovery around mid-year,” noted Scotiabank Economics in updating its world economic outlook in September.
Scotiabank now predicts that the Canadian economy will shrink by 2.3 per cent in 2009 and grow by 2.8 per cent in 2010.
486,000 jobs lost
Even as Canada’s job market improves, however, the damage already done has been impressive.
Since last October, Canada has lost 486,000 full-time jobs, Statistics Canada estimated.
Besieged manufacturers, faced with collapsing worldwide and domestic demand for their goods, shed almost 231,000 employees since August 2008.
In addition, more than one-half of the total job loss has taken place in Ontario, where the employed workforce fell by more than 170,000 in the same period.
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600 Calgary jobs lost in Haworth plant closure August 19, 2009
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Office interiors manufacturer Haworth announced it’s closing its Calgary factory and cutting 600 jobs. (CBC)
Haworth Inc., a maker of office interiors, is closing its factory in Calgary and eliminating about 600 jobs as it moves manufacturing to Michigan.
The U.S.-based company will maintain an office and showroom in the city, employing about 100 people.
Haworth is consolidating its operations in western Michigan because of excess capacity as a result of the global recession and to better integrate its product lines, the company said Tuesday.
The state is close to approving a tax incentive package for the company worth $22.4 million over 13 years. Haworth said its move will create up to 649 jobs in Michigan, which has been hit hard by the restructuring of the automakers based there.
“It’s difficult to compete when you’ve got states pulling out all the punches to attract any manufacturing that you get,” said ATB Financial senior economist Todd Hirsch.
Michigan’s economic woes also mean Haworth will probably be able to pay lower wages than they would have in Calgary, which has a fairly robust labour market in comparison, Hirsch said.
‘We missed an opportunity there. There’s no reason for these guys to have left. They should have stayed here.’? Mogens Smed, former owner
The company, based in Holland, Mich., has been operating the factory in southeast Calgary since 2000, when it acquired SMED International for $250 million.
“It’s a shame,” former owner Mogens Smed told CBC News on Tuesday. “I feel very, very badly about it, because a lot of those people are my friends. A lot of those people were the very reason I was successful in the first place, and to see all this happen is just typical of a big corporation.”
Smed, who has since built up another furniture company called DIRTT Environmental Solutions, said the Alberta government doesn’t understand the value of manufacturing and got outhustled by the Michigan offer.
“There’s something to be said there ? that, you know, we missed an opportunity there. There’s no reason for these guys to have left. They should have stayed here,” he said.
Deal contradicts NAFTA
Bruce Graham, president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development, said the job cuts are a disappointing blow to the city’s economy.
“To some degree, it’s a surprise but recognizing the industry they’re in and the marketplace that we’re dealing with, it’s not a big surprise that they’ve had to make some adjustments across their global operations,” he said.
Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason said the incentive shows how the North American Free Trade Agreement is failing Canada. In an economic downturn, he said Americans will ensure they look after themselves, even at the expense of their biggest trading partner.
“We’ve seen that with softwood lumber and I think that the incentives being offered by Michigan in fact contradict the principles of the free trade agreement,” Mason said.
Mason said Haworth’s Michigan deal proves Canadians should be concerned by the U.S. administration’s “Buy American” policy. The provision gives priority to U.S. iron, steel and other manufactured goods for use in public works and building projects funded with recovery money.
Haworth expects the move to Michigan to take several months and will be completed in 2010.
Haworth also has a showroom in Toronto and a factory in Quebec.
With files from The Canadian Press (more…)
U.S. sheds 467,000 jobs in June July 5, 2009
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The United States lost 467,000 jobs in June, the Labour Department reported Thursday.
The increase drove the non-farm unemployment rate up 0.1 point from May to 9.5 per cent, the department said.
“Job losses were widespread across the major industry sectors, with large declines occurring in manufacturing, professional and business services, and construction.”
The job loss figure is expected to continue rising through 10 per cent because unemployment lags the economy. But the losses also mean the recovery could be slower than hoped, some economists said.
With the June loss, the total number of unemployed rose to 14.7 million from 14.5 million in May.
The percentage increase was slightly less than the 0.2 per cent economists had been expecting, but the actual number of new unemployed was higher than the 363,000 forecast.
Moreover, the income numbers and the shrinkage in the average workweek in the report “are worse than the headline, and that’s not going to be nice for retailers,” ScotiaMcLeod adviser Andrew Pyle said.
The number of “involuntary part-time workers,” people who want to work full-time but can’t find jobs, was nine million in June, little changed from May. But since the recession began in December 2007, the number has risen by 4.4 million.
Among the various demographic groups separated out in the report, teenagers, at 24 per cent, and blacks, at 14.7 per cent, had the highest rates in the June report. Adult women, at 7.6 per cent, and Asians, at 8.2 per cent, were the lowest.
Since the recession started, the number of unemployed has risen by 7.2 million and the unemployment rate is up 4.6 percentage points.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the report showed the recession is slowing because it is better than the previous report.
But he sympathized with the unemployed.
“Obviously, this is little comfort to all those Americans who have lost their jobs,” he said.
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Apple CEO Jobs received liver transplant: report June 22, 2009
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Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, seen here joking about his health at an October 2008 appearance, is said to be aiming to return to work by the end of June.(Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)
Apple Inc. CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs received a liver transplant about two months ago and is recovering well, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
The report, which did not name its sources, said he underwent the procedure in Tennessee in April. Jobs did not respond to a request by the Wall Street Journal for comment.
“Steve continues to look forward to returning at the end of June, and there’s nothing further to say,” the journal quoted Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton as saying.
Jobs has been on medical leave since January. At the time, he announced that he would return to work by the end of June, and is expected to stick to that schedule, though he may only work part time initially.
Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, has taken over Jobs’s day-to-day responsibilities in the interim.
Jobs, a survivor of a rare form of pancreatic cancer, said Jan. 5 that he had a treatable hormone imbalance and would continue to run Apple. But the following week he went on leave to treat medical issues that were “more complex” than he had believed.
The Journal said in Saturday’s editions that the type of cancer Jobs had can metastasize in other organs, according to William Hawkins, a doctor specializing in pancreatic and gastrointestinal surgery at Washington University in St. Louis.
Jobs’s health is a concern for investors because of the influence he has had in shaping Apple’s products and design choices. Jobs regained control of the company in 1997.
With files from The Associated Press
