Canada may yet be spared from the worst of a US recession

[Kontiki]

I think it's just a difference in terminology between the two countries, otherwise you wouldn't be able to compare them.

[Ben Kenobi]

unemployed, the chronically sick, the prisoners, the children, the stay-at-home moms & dads, and the retirees

Which is why the measure is not good. If workforce participation goes up, that's not necessarily a good thing, if it's because folks who are retired have to go back again.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Kontiki
I think it's just a difference in terminology between the two countries, otherwise you wouldn't be able to compare them.

I thought the fact you couldn't compare them was what made people call that chart misleading?

[snoopy369]

1. Don't use two different terms in one graph. Even if they're essentially the same, don't.

2. Employment:Population ratio is interesting, but not really so much in highly developed countries, and certainly not for tracking a recession. In fact, in a recession you can sometimes see an increase in that ratio (or at least a much slower decline than in other rates), as more and more wives are forced into the economy when their husbands lose their jobs and have to take a less well paying one.

[Kontiki]

I don't know what Asher's complaint is, and Ben is saying he doesn't like the metric, not that they aren't comparable.

[snoopy369]

If they're the same, use the same terminology. If they're not the same (exactly), don't compare them. Very simple really

[Wiglaf]

Recession? There is no recession, crops and markets are booming. The economy will grow 2.8% by this year's end. If anything is in a recession it is your vocabulary. Call it a downturn, like Secretary Paulson does, but do not you dare call it a recession ever again.

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by snoopy369
If they're the same, use the same terminology. If they're not the same (exactly), don't compare them. Very simple really

That's a question of style, and I'm not defending it either way.

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by snoopy369
If they're the same, use the same terminology. If they're not the same (exactly), don't compare them. Very simple really

But even the unemployment rates definition are also different from each country. I do think it's a good way to measure how well goes our employment market. Edit: At least it can show us the trends.

This morning statscan have published an Update about the Housing Price Index:

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080211/d080211a.htm

Again yet, we do not seems to suffer from the falling of housing price.

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by Kontiki
I don't know what Asher's complaint is, and Ben is saying he doesn't like the metric, not that they aren't comparable.

The graphic is misleading because there's such a thing as lag in economics. All the graph may show is that there isn't a simultaneous relationship between Canadian and US employment levels. An alternative reason the graphic is misleading it doesn't matter how high each country's employment rate is, it's the direction in which it's heading that matters. A graph showing employment growth (or shrinkage) over time may have been more appropriate.

[CrONoS]

Unemployment rate in Canada



all seems to go well (yet)

[CrONoS]

On a side note; two friends of me are working in two different factories, they have been put on "stand-by" since the inventory of their factory are full...

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢


The graphic is misleading because there's such a thing as lag in economics. All the graph may show is that there isn't a simultaneous relationship between Canadian and US employment levels

Hey at least it show to people not to confuse the economic problem of Canada with the problem of USA!

[Ben Kenobi]

But even the unemployment rates definition are also different from each country. I do think it's a good way to measure how well goes our employment market. Edit: At least it can show us the trends.

It's a so-so measure to compare the performance of the Canadian economy over time. What it doesn't show.

1. Increases or decreases in employment.
2. Regional variations. Out here things are slowing big time, as they are out in Alberta too, due to drops in the US demand.

When 85 percent of our export economy is to the US, then whenever the US sneezes we catch cold.

[Ben Kenobi]

I don't know what Asher's complaint is, and Ben is saying he doesn't like the metric, not that they aren't comparable.

I don't like the metric, but I thought it was obvious that the two are not comparable. I didn't want to repeat Zkribbler's critique, which argued that the Canadian measure was superior, even as it was much different from the American one.

The only things that are comparable, is the performance up here in Canada over time. The metric though, is related more to demographic rather then economic trends, which is why workforce participaton is a poor economic measure.