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The Daily. Friday, July 7, 2000

Labour Force Survey

Employment was little changed in June and the unemployment rate remained at 6.6%. Over April, May and June, the average growth in employment was 11,000 per month, slower than the average monthly growth of 44,000 in the preceding six months.

Full-time employment fell by 25,000 in June, mostly among adult men (-17,000). Over April, May and June, full-time employment growth slowed compared with the growth in late 1999 and early 2000.

Over the last 12 months, almost all of the 380,000 (+2.6%) increase in employment has been in full-time jobs. As a result, the proportion of workers employed part-time has fallen to 18.2%, compared with 18.7% in June 1999.

Notes to readers Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) will begin using new regions for the Employment Insurance program on July 9. The unemployment rates in the newly defined regions are outlined in Table 18 of Labour force information (71-001-PPB or 71-001-PIB). For more information on the changes to the Employment Insurance regions, please consult this page on the HRDC Web site: www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/common/news/insur/00-46.shtml. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) has undergone extensive revisions to reflect two important changes to the way in which labour market data are produced. As a result, all LFS estimates have been revised back to January 1976. For more information on these revisions, please see "Improvements in 2000 to the LFS" at Statistics Canada's Web site (www.statcan.ca). From the Concepts, definitions and methods page, go to Documents on methodology. The new revised data, which are now available on CANSIM, must be used to make historical comparisons of LFS estimates. Before obtaining any data from CANSIM, please read the "Revised Historical Labour Force Survey Data" communiqué at Statistics Canada's Web site (www.statcan.ca). To harmonize with other Statistics Canada data sources, the LFS recently introduced a new definition of the public and private sectors. As a result, the estimates of public employment that are not seasonally adjusted are somewhat underestimated prior to May 1999. To better reflect real changes in public and private sector employment and to avoid a break in the series, the historical seasonally adjusted series have been modified. In addition, the annual averages available on CANSIM have been calculated using the "modified" seasonally adjusted data instead of the unadjusted data. Harmonization with Census occupation concepts from January to June 1999 has affected the comparability of LFS occupation data through time. The management group was most affected; a portion of those formerly classified as managers are now most likely classified in business, finance and administrative, or sales and service occupations.

Employment drops among adult men and youths, while adult women continue to gain

After strong increases in the latter half of 1999 and into early 2000, employment among adult men (aged 25 and over) levelled off over April, May and June. Still, employment among adult men was 152,000, or 2.3% higher, in June than in June 1999.

The drop in employment among adult men was in part attributable to declines in industries where a large proportion of workers are men, most notably manufacturing, construction and transportation and warehousing.

However, for adult women employment continued to grow. In June, it increased by 21,000, pushing year-over-year growth to 167,000, or 3.0%. Adult women's unemployment rate was 5.4%, slightly lower than the rate for adult men (5.8%).

Employment among youths (aged 15 to 24) dropped by 22,000 in June. Despite this drop, youth employment was 61,000 higher than in June 1999, an increase of 2.8%. The percentage of young people with a job was 55.7%, 1.1 percentage points higher than in June 1999. The year-over-year increase in the youth employment rate was larger than the increase in the employment rate for adult women (+0.8 percentage points) and adult men (+0.5 points).

While the adult participation rate was unchanged in June at 66.2%, the youth rate dropped 1.2 percentage points to 63.1%. With the large decline in youth participation, their unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points in June to 11.8%.

Summer job market for teenagers improved

From May to August, the Labour Force Survey identifies young people aged 15 to 24 who were attending school full-time in March and intended to return to school full-time in the fall. The published estimates are not seasonally adjusted, therefore comparisons can only be made on a year-over-year basis.

The proportion of students with a summer job in June was 47.9%, compared with 47.4% in June 1999. Summer employment has improved for teenagers but worsened for older students. As the employment rate among teenage students increased from 39.9% in June 1999 to 41.8% in June 2000, it fell from 67.7% to 64.1% for students in their twenties.

Slowdown in manufacturing

Employment in manufacturing declined 18,000 in June. The strong upward trend that began in mid-1998 has slowed in recent months. In the first six months of 2000, manufacturing employment is rose 8,000, compared with a gain of 53,000 in the last half of 1999.

Activity in manufacturing and in the transportation and warehousing sector are related. Over 1999, as manufacturing employment picked up, so too did transportation and warehousing employment, mostly in trucking. While employment growth in transportation and warehousing was strong in 1999, so far in 2000 there has been little change. In June, employment in this industry fell by 11,000.

Employment also dropped in construction in June (-10,000), the fourth consecutive monthly decrease. Even with the recent decline, construction employment is up 36,000, or 4.7% compared with June 1999.

Agricultural employment fell by 10,000 in June. Throughout 1999, the number of people working in agriculture steadily declined; this trend has continued into 2000. Compared with June 1999, employment in agriculture is down 34,000, or 8.3%.

Offsetting some of the losses in June were gains in some service-producing industries. The largest increase was in the management of companies and administrative support services, where employment increased by 18,000. Over the last year, employment in this industry has increased by 39,000, or 7.6%.

Employment increased by 15,000 in education services in June, erasing the loss in May. Declines earlier this year leave the number of people working in education at about the same level as in June 1999.

Public sector employment up

The number of employees in the public sector increased by 24,000 in June. Over the last 12 months, public sector employment has increased by 86,000. While employment in public administration has fallen over the last year, public sector employment in health care and social assistance as well as education has risen.

There was little change in private sector employment in June. Over the last year, however, employment in the private sector (+3.8%) has grown faster than in the public sector (+3.2%).

Slower growth in Ontario and Quebec

Employment was little changed in Ontario in June. Over the last three months, employment in Ontario has increased by 14,000. In the preceeding three months, employment rose by 58,000. With participation in the labour market down slightly in June, the unemployment rate in Ontario slipped to 5.4%.

Employment in Quebec was also little changed. During the first six months of 2000, employment increased by 21,000, much less than the increase of 87,000 in the last half of 1999. With a slight drop in labour force participation in June, Quebec's unemployment rate fell from 8.5% to 8.4%.

Employment was also little changed in all other provinces except Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island.

In Saskatchewan, employment fell by 4,000 in June, pushing the unemployment rate up 0.6 percentage points to 5.6%. Declines in agriculture and manufacturing led the overall drop.

Employment in Prince Edward Island fell 1,800, leading to a 1-percentage-point rise in the unemployment rate to 11.5%. Despite June's decline, employment was up 2,500, or 4.1% compared with June 1999.

Although employment changed little in Manitoba, the unemployment rate edged down to 4.4%, the lowest rate since August 1976.

Available on CANSIM: matrices 3450-3471, 3483-3492, 3503 and table 00799999.

Available at 7 a.m. on Statistics Canada's Web site (www.statcan.ca) on the Daily news page.

A more detailed summary, Labour force information (71-001-PPB, $11/$103; 71-001-PIB, $8/$78), for the week ending June 17, 2000 is now available.

The next release of the Labour Force Survey will be on Friday August 4.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Jacques Ouellet (613-951-4168) or Vincent Ferrao (613-951-4750), Labour Statistics Division.

Labour force characteristics for both sexes, aged 15 and over

Labour force characteristics for both sexes, aged 15 and over

Employment by industry (based on NAICS) and class of worker for both sexes, aged 15 and over

Employment by type of work, age and sex