The unemployment rate in Canada has a huge impact on the housing market and the Canadian mortgages within them. If unemployment goes up drastically, all of a sudden people can’t afford to pay their mortgages and they default. If this happens to enough buyers, the market is suddenly flooded with inventory – the homes that used to hold those now-defaulted mortgages. Stock goes up, prices go down, and those still in their homes also just as suddenly find their home values falling. Not to mention those with one less income now. So when you talk about the market – housing or mortgages – you must take a look at the unemployment rate every now and then. Today, we’ll do just that.
Statistics Canada recently revealed stats showing that while 50,000 jobs were created in Canada during the month of September, unemployment has gone up. It was only slightly, moving one-tenth of a percentage point up to 7.4% for the nation. Not only was the increase only slight, but when you look at Greece’s unemployment rate, currently sitting at 25%, it can put it into perspective for you.
Of those 50,000 jobs, Ontario created 31,100 jobs in September when compared with August, bringing our total unemployment rate down to 7.9% in September from 8% in August. Stats Canada says that the majority of jobs were created for males between the ages of 25 – 55, which is pretty vague; and that the jobs were created mainly in part-time payroll positions, and self-employment.
The following chart shows you the rates on unemployment in different regions of Ontario; clearly showing that the Toronto and Hamilton-Niagara areas are driving growth in the province. Unfortunately, that’s being offset by the lack of unemployment still being seen in cities such as Kitchener-Waterloo, Ottawa, Northern Ontario, Kingston-Pembroke, and Stratford-Bruce.
The amount of jobs created in each region during the last quarter:
But those who are seeing the increases in the rates and beginning to get worried needn’t be.
“That is very unusual, to get [such] a job gain and yet have the unemployment rate rise in the same month,” says Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at the Bank of Montreal’s BMO Capital Markets. “Often when the job market looks a bit better, you can get a rush of people out there looking for work. I don’t think that’s a bad sign. The good news here is the majority of people looking for work got jobs.”
But is it a bad sign that most of those people got those jobs by just starting up a business on their own? Twenty years ago maybe, as not everyone had the resources or the know-how to do so. But times they are a-changin’ and self-employment is something that has risen in popularity ever since the recession hit and many people lost their jobs.
What do you think? Have you seen the significant rise in self-employment that these stats suggest? Have you recently become self-employed in the last few months, or do you know someone who has? Let us know in the comment section below or, by liking us on Facebook!
