Selective Perception and Strange Bedfellows #nlpoli

Labour federation president Lana Payne tweeted last week about the latest labour force figures in the province.

And that’s true.  According to Statistics Canada, the province recorded the highest ever participation rate in June: 62%.

Two Conservative supporters retweeted Payne’s comments, apparently because they fit the Conservative mantra that everything is wonderful under the Tories.  Conservative policies produce results, which is why the Tories enjoy such huge support in the province.

Anyway, Tories and Dippers cheering the same thing isn’t really as odd a situation as it might seem.

Labour force indicators raise questions about economic health and competitiveness

In a recent Fraser Institute study of labour markets in North America, Newfoundland and Labrador came in 49th out of 60 overall.  The study measured performance in five indicators:

• average total employment growth,
• average private-sector employment growth,
• average unemployment rate,
• average duration of unemployment, and,
• average gross domestic product per worker.

The study also assessed the level of public sector employment, minimum wage rate, level of unionization, labour relations laws and what the study authors termed “other areas of concern”.

Here’s how Newfoundland and Labrador placed in nine of the categories for which there was a readily measurable score that compared jurisdictions straightforwardly.   

Some of these figures, like the private sector as a percentage of the labour force, will be very familiar to Bond Papers readers. Now there is some context for them that shows they are cause for concern not just in and of themselves but because they raise serious questions about the overall health of the economy and about the province’s competitiveness.

It should almost go with saying that anyone arguing for an increase in public sector employment is out of touch.

1. Average total employment growth (2005-2009):  38th place with 0.1%.  That’s the weakest of the Canadian provinces.  The next weakest was Nova Scotia with 0.5%.
2. Average private-sector employment growth (2005-2009):  34th place with 0.0%.
3. Average unemployment rate (2005-2009):  60th place with 14.5%.
4. Average duration of unemployment (2005-2009):  17th place with 14.9% of the unemployed being out of work for 27 weeks or longer.
5. Average GDP per worker (2005-2009):  eighth place with $134,494.
6. Average provincial public sector employment as share of total employment (2005-2009):  59th, with 24.8%.  Nevada and Pennsylvania topped the ranking with 9.4% and 9.5% respectively.  Only Saskatchewan beat out Newfoundland and Labrador for the bottom spot with 24.9%
7. Average public sector employment (fed/prov/mun) as a share of total employment:  60th place with 28.2%
8. Average minimum wage as percent of GDP per worker (2004-2008):  10th place, 12%.
9. Unionized work force as a percentage of total work force (2005-2009):  59th, with 38%.  Quebec was the most unionised jurisdiction, at 39.9%.  North Carolina was the least with 4.3%.

Some of the other areas of concern are also interesting to note.  Newfoundland and Labrador showed the most days of work lost per 1,000 employees due to industrial disputes. (390 days, 2004-2008) That was three time the number of days of the second spot, British Columbia, with 127 days. Quebec – in third place – had a loss work days of 75 days.

And here are a couple of measures for just the past year:

1. Average unemployment rate, July 2009- June 2010:  60th place with an average unemployment rate of 15.4%. 
2. Average total employment growth, July 2009-June 2010:   tied for second place with 0.2% average growth.

- srbp -

Labour Force Comparison – a first look

last week’s release of the latest labour force numbers from Statistics Canada prompted your humble e-scribbler to go back and try a comparison of the overall provincial labour force in comparison to national averages.

Right off the bat, let everyone understand this is nothing more than a quick comparison based on readily available information. It should serve as the jumping off point for future discussion and if nothing else, it should help everyone get way beyond the rather simplistic comparisons of month-to-month numbers. Sometimes those things are meaningful but as the past couple of months have shown, sometimes, the statistics are just off.

The provincial numbers comes from a document included with the last provincial budget.  It’s called The Economy and gives an overview of the year just ended.  The national numbers come from the latest labour force statistics. Both sources use the same job classification system.  The listing below bundles them together so that the comparisons match up.

The figures are the percentage of the total number of jobs in each category.  For example, 1.7% of jobs in Canada are classified as being agricultural.  The corresponding percentage for Newfoundland and Labrador is 0.4%

To draw attention to aspects of the comparison, please note that categories where the provincial percentage lags behind the national significantly are marked with the digits underlined.  Where the provincial is significantly above the national average, the figures are in red. 

Statisticians may wonder what the definition of “significant” is.  Well, it comes down to the relative difference in the two numbers as they appear on the face of it. 

Category	National	Newfoundland and Labrador
Goods-producing	22%	21%
Agriculture	1.7	0.4
Natural Res	2.0	6.7
Utilities	<1	2.1
Construction	7.0	7.3
Manufacturing	10.2	5.5
Services-producing	78	79
Trade	15.7	16.2
Trans/warehouse	4.7	5.4
Fin, ins, RE,Bus	10.5	6.7
Prof./sci./tech.	7.4	3.6
Education	7.2	8.1
Health/soc asst	11.9	16.1
Accn	6.0	6.1
Public Admin	5.5	7.9
Other	4.3	4.8

Right off the bat, note that the relative breakdown into goods-producing and service- producing is virtually the same for both the provincial and national economies.

Let’s look at the goods sector. Overall, the provincial economy in this sector is very heavily reliant on resource extraction. The natural resources grouping (which includes fishing, trapping, mining and oil extraction) accounts for three times as large a percentage of jobs within the province as the same grouping.  Manufacturing, on the other hand, accounts for only half as much.  That 5.5% manufacturing for the province includes 2.2% for fish processing.

In the services sector, there are some equally interesting comparisons.  Finance, insurance, real estate and business services account for 6.7% of the jobs in this province while the same grouping accounts for 105% of jobs nationally.  The professional, scientific and technical services sector accounts for 3.6% of local jobs versus 7.4% nationally.

Take a look, though, at two service sectors which are publicly funded. About 16% of local jobs are in the health sector compared to 11.9% nationally;  that’s 33% above the national number.  Public administration is 43%, accounting for 7.9% of provincial jobs compared to 5.5% nationally.

Fully a quarter of the jobs in the province are public sector jobs compared to 17.4% of jobs across the country.  Given that some of the other categories likely also contain public sector employees, it wouldn’t take too much to estimate reasonably that the public sector accounts for about one third of all workers in the province.

Incidentally, just to put actual numbers on this, the health and social assistance sector accounted for 34,600 jobs in 2009 according to the provincial government figures.  That’s out of a total of 214,900 jobs.  It is the single largest category in the service sector, with retail trade coming in at 29,600 for second place  There were 17,300 in educational services and 16,900 people working in public administration.

The largest job category in goods-producing was construction at 15,700. The second largest was manufacturing with 11,900.  Of that manufacturing number, 4,700 were involved in fish processing.

- srbp -

Pre-publication post-script update:  This posts was written the night before it appeared. labradore has a simple set of numbers using more recent data for the size of the public sector in the province. His estimates are for the provincial public sector alone;  the figures above are for federal, provincial and municipal.

Still, according to labradore, the provincial government public sector accounted for 25% of the current labour force in the first half of 2010.

Labour force trending

Friday’s labour force data from Statistics Canada got a fair bit of news time, largely for the reported drop in employment in Newfoundland and Labrador of 8,100.

It’s hot on the heels of an equally large jump in employment the month before.

Month to month fluctuations don’t necessarily mean very much of anything.  And in fact if you look at the last couple of months compared to say figures dating back to march 2007, you can easily see that the big rise and big fall in employment could just be an anomaly.

The current estimated number of employed people is around 218,000 which is roughly where the employed chunk of the labour force peaked a couple of times going back to early 2007.  It only went over that – peaking out at 226,000 or thereabouts for a few months in early 2008.

What’s more noticeable when you look at these long term figures is that while the number of employed people is up again, the total labour force is the highest it has been in the past three years.  Whether these people have been living here and have returned to the labour force or whether they’ve shifted here from somewhere else, there are more people available for work.

Rough appraisal:  The economy has struggled to regain lost ground during the recession.  At the same time, the available labour force has grown hence the unemployment rate remains high.

Take a look at a couple of other numbers in the Statistics Canada survey to see some other points of interest.

First, the estimated population – that is those 15 years of age and over  - remains pretty steady at a little over 430,000. 

Second, of those, only 59% participate in the labour force.  That’s the lowest rate in the country.

Third, the employment rate – that is, the percentage of employed people as a part of the labour force  - is one of the lowest in the country.  Other provinces beat that by a good 10 points.

Now if you look at the provincial government’s own figures for May (likely to soon disappear in favour of a more recent update), you’ll see that they use higher numbers in their estimates.  The overall trending is likely the same.

One important thing to notice from the provincial government’s assessment is where the job growth came in May.  Growth came in health and social services, accommodations and trade.  The drops came in manufacturing, information, culture and recreation and in business.

- srbp -

Revised to correct typos and improve readability.

Labour Force and Employment, March 2007-March 2010

Just for the fun of it all, here’s a table showing the Newfoundland and Labrador labour force (top line and the employment, by month, from March 2007 to March 2010.

The numbers are from Statistics Canada’s The Daily.

There are a few things to notice:

1.   Employment in Newfoundland and Labrador peaked in May 2008 at 224,700. Then it dropped drastically and kept on falling until November 2009.  That’s when it seems to have started a rebound.

2.  May 2008 was two to three months before oil prices peaked and the recession started.

3. As one might have expected, all that provincial government capital spending last year kept construction workers employed but it sure as heck didn’t work any miracles in the job market. 

4. Even though there’s been a pretty steady climb in employment since later 2009, there doesn’t seem to be any particular reason for the climb, at least not in the private sector. The employment level also seems to have hit a plateau for a while.

5.  The only major private construction project due to ramp up in the near future is the Vale Inco project at Long Harbour.  The Hibernia South and White Rose work aren’t really jab-makers. Hebron is the next big one to hit and that won’t show up until 2012 at the earliest.

6.  Notice that the labour force in the province has been growing steadily since  the middle of 2007.  That matches the observation made by labradore about economic refugees who started returning home in advance of the recession.

7. Is the recession really over? Continued labour force grow suggests there is a problem elsewhere and that economic refugees continue to head back to Newfoundland and Labrador in the hopes things are easier at home.

-srbp-