4.2.0One of the themes we examined at the last BCCDA (BC Career Development Association) Training Day, which I presented, was whether we knew how many more people were without work in BC now, as opposed to July 2008 when the recession began to bite.
We generally didn’t know, but we learnt.
I was asked to distribute this information.
One of our (Employment Counsellors etc) professional responsibilities (in the Standards and Guidelines – for Employment types) is to remain current and informed about the latest Labour Market conditions, so here are the facts.
(NB: For the visual learners out there I’ve also attached a nice plain view of the core figures as a PDF)
When economists or government spokespeople or business analysts say that we have recovered almost all the jobs we lost since the start of the recession they are right; we are within 4,300 jobs of where we were in July 2008.
What this obscures is that the population, and thus the labour force, in BC is continually rising. (In part encouraged by the very same incomplete tales of jobs recovered.)
Since July 2008 the population of BC has increased by 151,100, of whom 76,100 entered the Labour Force.
So we are in fact 80,400 jobs behind where we were in July 2008.
That’s 80,400 more mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, neighbours and fellow citizens suffering from the effects of unemployment.
Every month when the figures are released, employed numbers are expressed as a figure, unemployment as a percentage.
These statistics on the rising population and labour force explain the conundrum as to how we can have a steady or even falling percentage of unemployment, yet the number of people unemployed is increasing;10% of 100 is ten, 10% of 1000 is a hundred, but still 10%.
This set of figures, all taken from official StatsCan tables (see below for source files) are important to know in their own right, but are most useful when reassuring unemployed people who, after months of doing everything right, are still unable to find work, and start blaming themselves.
It’s not their fault; it’s the economy, still badly behind, still suffering from the recession.
Watch out each month for the presentation of unemployment as a percentage; it’s put forward as a form of acceptable ‘collateral damage’, whereas as employment professionals we are here to support every single individual unable to find work, and need to know the actual number of people seeking our help.
Stephen (from my work as an Employment Counsellor)
Source files from StatsCan
