12-05-2015, 12:13 PM
(12-05-2015, 10:16 AM)panamaniac Wrote: According to Statistics Canada, the Kitchener CMA's labour force lost 8,800 people (November 2014 to November 2015) and employment fell by 7,900 in the same period, even as the population grew by 4,000. Is this possible?
Yes.
7,900 people lost their jobs
8,800 unemployed people stopped looking for a job
4,000 people have joined the region, and are not looking for jobs
(meaning a total of 12,800 new non-job-seekers)
The magic number that makes it all balance is labour force participation. People who are unemployed, but are not looking for work. Children, stay-at-home parents, retirees, etc, affect the numbers, but their counts are rarely reported in headlines.
If you are a megalomaniacal leader trying to improve your country's unemployment rate, then just give an incentive to people to stop looking for work. For example, if you allowed income-splitting, so married couples had an incentive to have one partner stay at home. If everyone who is unemployed stops looking for work, then overnight you get 0% unemployment! Think of the headlines!