Ontario employment numbers still paltry compared to Western Canada

While the national unemployment rate was 7.1 per cent in June, city-by-city data show how many jobs are concentrated in Western Canada.

The following map shows overall employment levels for all of 2012 in major cities across Canada. Western Canadian cities like Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon and Vancouver show astonishingly low unemployment numbers.

Meanwhile, many Ontario cities, along with much of Atlantic Canada, show solidly average-to-high unemployment rates. The exception to the rule in Atlantic Canada is Halifax, which shows a 6.1% unemployment rate, a whole percentage point below the national average.

Legend: Purple dots are around the national average. Green dots are below the national average and green arrows are very low. Red dots are high and red arrows are very high. Click each city for more details.

Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter said the June labour survey report, in which overall unemployment in Canada held steady at 7.1%, should be a reminder to markets and analysts to look through the volatile monthly data for a true picture of labour conditions and give greater credence to the three-month and six-month rolling averages.

Over the first half of 2013, the economy created an average of about 14,000 jobs a month, about half the pace of growth seen in the second half of 2012.

?As a stand-alone report, June looks pretty sickly but given the massive, near-record job gain in May it?s actually mildly encouraging that strength was maintained,? Porter said.

?I do think the bigger picture is that job growth did slow in the first half of the year and that gives a more accurate picture of what happened in the Canadian job market, not these wild (swings),? he said.

?And the unemployment rate is 7.1 and it was 7.2 per cent a year ago and that tells us there?s been precious little improvement, but there is a little improvement.?

Meanwhile, the job market of the West and the North continues to attract people from the East.

-with files from the Canadian Press

Source: http://o.canada.com/2013/07/05/ontario-employment-numbers-still-paltry-compared-to-western-canada/

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