Many people are seemingly impressed with the unexpected 52,000 jobs that were added to the Canadian economy this past month.  To Canada’s delight, the gain was more than the roughly 10,000 new jobs that economists polled by Bloomberg were expecting.  At face value, this new discovery seems both promising and encouraging for Canadian citizens; however, should we really be impressed?

Notice how reporters are not taking into account the population of Canada.  From 2010 to 2011, Canada’s population has risen from 34.1262 million to 34.4828 million making the growth in Canadian jobs look very small in comparison.  With this large increase in Canada’s population, the demand for certain goods in Canada will also rise, causing supply to rise (or vise versa).  Simple logic tells us, that in order for that to happen, companies and services will require more employees.  So the real question should not be whether or not the number of jobs in Canada has increased; but rather we should be looking at the unemployment rate.  By doing this, Canadians will realize that this discovery is not so exciting as Canadian Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti noted there are now five unemployed workers for every job opening across the country. “Our economy is sluggish and there is very little prospect on the horizon for real job growth,” Georgetti said in a release.