Every time this government crows about its job creation record, I cringe. They have moved the finish line and declared victory. No reason to worry about the unemployed here, folks. Let’s move on to more public service cuts, and/or tax cuts. Never mind that unemployment has been in and around 7.4% since the spring of […]
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knitnut.net: I got a job!
I had the interview on Friday afternoon, and then on Saturday, when I was at Duncan’s vet’s office, I got the call offering me the job. I announced to a waiting room full of strangers “I got the job!” and they all cheered. It’s not just any job, either –
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Conservative Economic Record
Sept 2012: Unemployment is up at 7.4%; it has been increasing since June while American unemployment has only gone down. July 2012: Worst trade deficit ever in Canadian history at $2.3 billion. 2012: GDP growth rate is declining (PDF pg 22). Canada is no longer the fastest growing economy in
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: We can do better
So there were 52,000 new jobs in September, but we needed 72,500 to keep up with labour force growth. 33,800 of those jobs were self-employed workers, and none of those jobs were for workers under 25. In the past year, men over 25 have been adding full time jobs, with
Continue readingOntario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak and party admits Dutch Disease contributes to decline in Ontario jobs.
I was reading through the Ontario Progressive Conservatives White Paper on unions, and I came across a most interesting part. Page 6, emphasis mine,When the Canadian dollar had a low value relative to the American dollar, many Canadian business were sl…
Continue readingOntario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak and party admits Dutch Disease contributes to decline in Ontario jobs.
I was reading through the Ontario Progressive Conservatives White Paper on unions, and I came across a most interesting part. Page 6, emphasis mine, When the Canadian dollar had a low value relative to the American dollar, many Canadian business were slow to increase productivity. For a time they could
Continue readingLeDaro: Spain: Prostitution – solution to unemployment!!
Could the world’s oldest profession be the newest solution to Spain’s jobs crisis? “Immediate opportunity! Professional prostitution classes. Very profitable occupation for both sexes.” This ad, targeting the nearly 25% of unemployed people in Spain, appeared last May in the streets of Valencia. Advisor of this employment training program must
Continue readingBullshit in absolutes: or how ‘liberal’* economists argue with themselves
We can perhaps amend an old Ethiopian saying to read “absolutes are for infants and kings”. It is catechism worth remembering when arguing with liberal economists. For theirs is not a just sport. In fact, one should never mix sport with justice. As Berlin said long ago (1958): Everything
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Canada lost 30 400 jobs in July & apologists blame the global economy
This is the kind of news Stephen Harper and the Conservatives would wish you didn’t hear. That’s because it debunks the self-made myth that they’re competent economic managers. They want us to believe that Canada survived the recent global recession better than most countries because of them. And, they’re rapidly
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: House Republicans Sacrifice Human Health For Alleged Job Creation
redtape.jpg With July 2012 officially behind us, the U.S. jobs report for the month has economists and politicians concerned about the employment situation in America. And even though the economy added 163,000 jobs (economists had predicted only 100,000 jobs to be added for July,) the unemployment rate and the underemployment
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Juxtaposition
Jim Flaherty… Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Monday new rule changes to define “suitable employment” and “reasonable” efforts at finding work have yet to come down, but as far as he’s concerned people should be prepared to take pretty well any available job. “There is no bad job, the only
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: EI Lags Unemployment
Today, Statistics Canada reported that 3,400 more Canadians received Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in May. It previously reported that unemployment rose by 8,000 that month. In other words, even more workers are now unemployed without EI benefits. In total, just 37% of unemployed Canadians received benefits in May (i.e. 512,600
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: EI: More Workers Fall Through the Cracks
Statistics Canada reported today that the number of Canadians receiving Employment Insurance (EI) dropped by 29,000 in April. Meanwhile, the Labour Force Survey indicates that unemployment rose by 14,000 in April (and by a further 8,000 in May). The combination of falling EI coverage and rising unemployment means that tens
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Job seeker to Job vacancy ratio remains high
Statistics Canada has released their latest data on job vacancies today, in the Daily. In March 2012 there were 5.8 job seekers for every job vacancy in Canada, down from 6.5 in March 2011. This is mostly because there were about 57 000 fewer unemployed in March 2012 than there
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Olivia Chow’s Budget Speech
http://www.oliviachow.ca/2012/06/budget-bill-read-olivias-speech/ The Conservatives are pushing their Trojan Horse budget bill through Parliament in a reckless manner. But worse than mocking our democracy is the devastating effect this bill will have on families, Olivia Chow points out in her speech. Olivia on the Conservative Budget: What does a job mean to
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Galbraith Lecture by Mike McCracken
I always come back from the annual CEA/PEF meetings highly energized by the companionship of so many other fine committed PEF members, and our success in engaging with the broader profession. This past weekend’s meetings in Calgary were no exception. A highlight, of course, was the 3rd Biennial Galbraith Lecture
Continue readingknitnut.net: I got laid off again
I got laid off last week; today’s my first day of unemployment. There were three weeks remaining on my three-month contract, but we started running out of international tax returns a couple of weeks ago. One day the work cart was empty. They sent us all home without pay for
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Labour Market Stalls
Canada’s job market stalled in May. Employment edged up by 7,700, almost all of it part-time. In fact, the number of employees paid by Canadian employers fell by 15,600. Total “employment” rose only because 23,300 more Canadians reported themselves as self-employed. Over the past year, employment has grown slightly less
Continue readingUnravelling Conservative Labour Market Policy: The Maximum Wage Law.
The OECD and the CATO institute have both consistently ranked Canadian labour markets as some of the most flexible in the advanced capitalist world. Indeed, Canada ranks only second to the US on most stingy when it comes to labour market protections. Odd then, that the Conservatives have chosen labour
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Memo to Ministers: The Issue is Unemployment Not Labour Shortages
The federal government is basing labour market policy on the belief that, as Jason Kenney pithily puts it in today’s Globe, there are “large and growing labour shortages.” Hence moves to bring in even more temporary foreign workers at lower than average wages, and to push EI claimants into supposedly
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