 |
During the recent return of Parliament, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan boasted that Canada had the strongest job-creation record in the G7, with the creation of over one million net new jobs since the recession.
However, (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data showed that this claim might not be entirely correct. However, the government might also be using a different data set in its calculations.
Statistics Canada showed that 17,175,100 people had jobs when the recession began in October 2008. That number dropped to 16,743,800 in July 2009. As of December 2013, Statistics Canada reported that 17,769,600 people had jobs.
Thus, the difference of 1,025,800 shows that Van Loan’s claim is indeed true. The doubts arise over whether Canada has the best job creation record in the G7.
The Canadian Press analysed employment data from the OECD. This data measured quarterly numbers, instead of monthly. Hence, they used the data from the third quarter of 2009 (the lowest point of the recession) and compared it to the latest quarter reported by all the G7 countries.
However, only Canada and the U.S. had reported figures for the fourth quarter of 2013. Therefore, the Canadian Press used the third quarter data for 2013 in their calculations – despite the availability of more recent data for Canada and the U.S.
According to OECD data, Germany had 38,205,190 employed people in the third quarter of 2009. This figure increased to 40,499,230 in the third quarter of 2013 – an increase of six percent. Canada came next with an increase of 5.81 percent, followed by the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Japan and Italy.
Many economists believe that the employment rate is a better indicator of the health of the labour market, as it measures the working age population that has a job. Canada had an employment rate of 61.8 percent in the third quarter of 2013, according to OECD data – the best among the G7, with the U.S. coming second at 58.6 percent.
Whichever way you look at it, Canada has fared well in rebounding from the downturn experienced during the recession.
Source: The Canadian Press
