Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

250,000 jobs vacant, new Statscan survey says

Canadian employers had, on average, 248,000 job vacancies last fall, even as the country's jobless rate remained above 7 per cent, a new national survey shows.

Statistics Canada's new job vacancy survey, out Tuesday, shows there were 3.3 unemployed people in Canada for every vacancy in the three months to September.

This is the first such release of its kind, so the initial data offers a snapshot of openings in Canada rather than a historical look at change over time.

The release provides estimates of the number and rates of job vacancies at broad industrial levels for Canada, the provinces and territories, and by size of enterprise.

Much is already known about the supply side of Canada’s labour market -- the people looking for work. But relatively little is known about the demand side of the equation. Economists said the new release will add useful insights into where the jobs are.

“The job vacancy story can give us an element we didn’t have,” unlike the U.S., which has regularly tracked openings, said Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC World Markets. “This can give us a sense of the skills mismatch what companies want and what is available,”

This isn’t the first time Canada has released openings. A help-wanted index, based on the number of want ads published in Canadian newspapers, ran a decade ago, but was discontinued in 2003.

Year-over-year comparisons of changes in job vacancies will be available from June onwards.

Today’s release “is a good beginning, but we really need a trend to see if it’s improving or not,” Mr. Tal said.

Educational services had the highest ratio of unemployed people to vacancies, with 10 jobless people per opening. Construction was next.

Wholesale trade, along with health care and social assistance, had the lowest ratio.

Among provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta had the highest job vacancies in the country.

Original Article
Source: Globe 
Author: Tavia Grant 

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