The numbers don't look good. Sure the US lost a staggering 598,000 jobs in January. But, in the much smaller True North, Canada lost 129,000 jobs.
On the basis of our admittedly simplistic 10:1 comparison ratio, we'd have been keeping up with our American Joneses if we dropped 60,000. Put it the other way, the Americans would have been keeping up with us if they'd lost 1.3-million jobs.
Now a really informative comparison is far more complex than a simple numerical ratio but it sounds like, bad as the whipping America took may be, Canadian workers got flayed.
It is actually way worse than that when you take out the seasonal adjustment.
ReplyDeleteThe reported 129,000 increase in unemployed is actually way higher when you take out the seasonal adjustment. More like 350,000 to 400,000 real Canadians were added to the unemployment lines in January. Will these come back in the summer (after the seasonal hires)? In this economy the underlying economic assumptions cannot be relied upon.
I understand the epicentre of these job losses is Ontario. It'd be nice if McGuinty could present a workable recovery/stimulus plan to Harper (and the Ontario public), something with a little more vision than subsidizing home renos.
ReplyDeleteWhooee! Right as rain, Mound. Ginty and Harper got no imagination and they can't even steal ideas from people who do. Bracko's pinnin' a lotta that hope he's so fond of on renewable energy and green collar job creation. Ontario's manufacturing sector is ripe for a big move into green. Instead, Ginty's earmarked $26 Bn for nuclear energy projects that take years to get off the drawing board. There's plenty of "shovel ready" clean energy projects that could benefit from infrastructure investment.
ReplyDeleteWhen we look back and ask what was the biggest reason the stimulus didn't work, one of the big faults will be that we failed to embrace green as an opportunity and perceived environmental action as unaffordable.
JB
Hey, JB. Ontario's manufacturing definitely should be transforming itself toward green industry but how do you get them to make the capital investment in this economic climate? Somebody has to egg them on to take that leap of faith.
ReplyDeleteYes, green jobs for a green economy - the green washing transformation. But until the politicos get these "ducks in a row" all those unemployed are going to need EI benefits for at least 50 weeks, or we will be seeing bread lines.
ReplyDeleteNow why was this stim budget not voted down?
If only there had been an alternative govt with the right progressive stim budget and with green policies.
Jan, I don't think there's a pol in the House who has the foggiest idea of the size of the problem we're facing much less the magnitude of the government effort that's going to be required to at least slow down the slide.
ReplyDeleteGovernment can't do it all, not by any measure. But it will only be spinning its wheels and saddling blue and white collar workers with enormous, ineffective deficits to go on as it is now.
Everytime I get to this point I keep wondering why we're not building a new, high-speed, twin-track railroad from one end of Canada to the other. A massive undertaking, no question, but the sort of project that would give us a green transportation alternative for the 21st and 22nd centuries and genuine stimulus spending (new money, new jobs) in every province save for PEI.
This sort of thing would be a huge works project, the sort of high-visibility effort so essential to restoring confidence.
Brookings had a report a month of so back noting that spending isn't enough. It has to be the right type of spending and getting that right means everything.