The recent IMF Report on Canada prompts me to remind everyone of some startling figures about the Canadian economy: 1) The private and federal debt combined ratio to GDP is an astonishing 203%. 2) The jobless rate in November is 7.4%, the worst in 5 months. 3) Youth unemployment is
Continue readingTag: unemployment
The Progressive Economics Forum: EI Coverage Falls Below 40%
It may be a grim Christmas for thousands of unemployed Canadians. Today’s Employment Insurance figures show that fewer workers received benefits in October, even as more became unemployed and filed EI claims. Specifically, the number of people receiving regular benefits declined from 546,580 in September to 541,230 in October. The Labour
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Record-Low Manufacturing Employment
Today’s Labour Force Survey indicates that the seemingly robust economic growth reported by Statistics Canada earlier this week is not translating into improved job prospects for Canadian workers. For the second consecutive month, employment is down and unemployment is up. (By contrast, the situation improved south of the border.) Manufacturing:
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Austerity Kills: Conservative cure worst thing for what ails the economy says Stiglitz
Governments around the world are heading down a path to economic suicide. So said Nobel Prize-winning former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, to hundreds of well-heeled financiers and decision-makers who paid a bundle to hear him in Toronto. With a voice as gruff as gravel, and an energy bristling with urgency, he […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: September 22, 2011
Thursday was another fairly short day of debate in the House of Commons due to the visit by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. But that doesn’t mean there was any lack of perfectly telling content as MPs continued to debate the Cons’ omnibus crime bill.T…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Profile of Displaced Workers
There’s an interesting new research report from Statistics Canada, by Ping Ching Winnie Chan, Rene Morissette, and Marc Frenette, profiling the workers who were displaced in the recent recession, and comparing the outcomes to previous recessions in earlier decades (the downturns of the early 1980s and 1990s). “Workers Laid Off During the Last Three Recessions,” […]
Continue readingknitnut.net: I got a job!
I got a job! I start on Monday! I’ll be working four days a week for a non-profit housing organization I already know and like, with people I already know and like. It’s just for a few months, but it’s great for now. I’m excited, though a bit apprehensive because it’s been so long since […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Trade Unions Urge G20 Action on Jobs
I am attending the G20 labour ministers meeting next week, which is being held against the background of high unemployment in the advanced economies, and the prospect – highlighted by the IMF yesterday – for unemployment to increase even further in the months ahead. A key union demand – that the G20 establish an ongoing […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Fighting Unemployment
I was sorry to miss a celebration of the life and work of Ian Stewart organized by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards last Friday night. Ian was a former senior economic official back in the now distant days of Keynesian dominance, including a stint as Deputy Minister of Finance which will be […]
Continue readingknitnut.net: Mostly good news
The morning after I wrote that last post about all the things my birds have destroyed, I was sitting on the couch with my laptop on my lap, and Simon was standing behind it playing peekaboo with me. He’d poke his head over the top and I’d say peekaboo and he’d look all pleased with […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Is There a Student Debt Bubble?
A recent article in The Atlantic looks at student debt in the United States and suggests there may be a student debt bubble. Written by the authors of the recent book, Higher Education?, the article points out that “college loans are nearing the $1 trillion mark, more than what all households owe on their credit cards.” The article also […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: MMT: What it Means for Canada
Arun Dubois’ blog post yesterday on Modern Monetary Theory has prompted me to write my own take on the subject. For those interested, an interesting thumbnail sketch of MMT, essentially functional finance augmented by a full understanding of monetary operations, is explained at http://johnsville.blogspot.com/2011/06/modern-monetary-theory-mmt-in-nutshell.html. While MMT deals with the details of monetary and fiscal matters, […]
Continue readingknitnut.net: Cowboys and Dogcats
The awesomeness of The Baseline Cowboys, who I blogged about in their early days, is spreading far and wide!
Tomorrow is GC and my GC’s and mine GC’s and my’s our third anniversary. We’re going to celebrate by cruising past the Baseline Cowboys (1605 Baseline Road) on our way out to dinner. Maybe […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Use University Research to Increase Manufacturing Jobs
Manufacturing jobs have been declinining as a percentage of total jobs in most OECD countries for several decades, with Ontario being especially hard-hit as a jurisdiction. At the end of the Second World War, manufacturing jobs accounted for 26% of all Canadian jobs; by 2007, this figure had dropped to just 12%. And as I’ve […]
Continue readingA rotting fruit that does not give vent to its own demand?
Given we seem to be stuck in fairly heady economic times it seems worthwhile to me to put out another post on the subject of employment, labour force growth and unemployment. In this post I am going to revisit the … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Greece at a Crossroads
Now that the Greek government has survived a confidence vote in Parliament, the stage is set in Greece for further confrontations ahead of next week’s decision on the new “austerity” plan demanded by the “troika” – the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB), and the European Union (EU). While the origins of […]
Continue readingTowards an adult conversation about Canadian labour markets
Have you ever heard the urban legend about how such and such generation of Canadians are lazier than the past generation? Or the One about how this generation just does not want to work and why we need to make … Continue reading →
Continue readingCanada: persistently 2nd worst in class
During the last election much was made about Canada’s relatively good performance during the last recession. What was conveniently left out of the discussion by all political parties is just how dismal Canada’s macroeconomic performance h…
Continue readingUBC economist Milligan throws cake at educated, unemployed youth
I tuned into a rebroadcast of this morning’s the CBC’s the Current while cleaning the kitchen this evening which had an unusually good documentary on the problem of youth unemployment; specifically, the problem of university undergrads in f…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Headed in the Wrong Direction
On the day that the U.S unemployment rate went up for the second month in a row, Paul Krugman wrote that: “To be sure, things could be worse — and there’s a strong chance that they will, indeed, get worse.” History is repeating itself. Unfor…
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