Hacker News
Job seekers could soon face an 'employer's market' as unemployment rate rises
https://globalnews.ca/news/10344333/canada-jobs-report-february-2024/
#ycombinator #labour_market #jobs_report #labour_force_survey #Unemployment #Canada #Economy #Money
Canada’s unemployment rate rises to 5.8% despite 41K jobs added in February

Canada's unemployment rate ticked back up to 5.8 per cent in February as population growth continues to outpace job creation in the country.

Global News
Mar 10, 2024 at 6:42pmWeb
Show threadMarius Fortuna_3Mar 10, 2024

@ycombinator
#Canada #cdnpoli #Bankofcanada

This means that more jobs were lost than created in February. This is the high interest rates to fight inflation policy at work. It slows inflation by creating unemployment. The Bank of Canada uses working people as the front line troops in its "war" against inflation. "You want a number, I'll give you a number. Did you know that for every 1% increase in unemployment, 40,000 people die!" Ben Rickert - The Big Short

Show threadAmgineMar 10, 2024

@marius_gs

That is generically true, but not the primary aim of raising interest rates.

Both the prices of products, and the price of services, rise due to inflation. (oversimplification: Worked hours are a service.)

During periods of static or deflationary influences, wages like other services and products usually stay the same, but employers use fewer hours of employee time. They will target lower-efficiency employees when they can.

Just like I buy less, only essentials.

Show threadMarius Fortuna_3Mar 11, 2024
@amgine I recall from following his commentary at the time that B of C Governor John Crow who directed a high interest rate agenda in the the '90's that he believed an unemployed rate under 8% was inflationary and used 8% unemployment as a target point for his interest rate policy. He would not reduce rates below what they were at if the unemployment rate was at 8%. Even when those rates were at an economy suppressing level. So he saw a more direct relationship between the two than you suggest.
Show threadAmgineMar 11, 2024

@marius_gs

What a given economist or executive uses as criteria, or as definition, is their point of view.

But the purpose of raising and lowering interest rates is primarily to control the rate at which government debt is devalued. The other effects are ancillary (even if directly linked.)

That is, it is not the purpose of the central bank's action in rate changes to influence employment, or commodity prices. Its purpose is to secure future sales of bonds at favourable rates.

Show threadMarius Fortuna_3Mar 11, 2024
@amgine

But this speaks back to my original point. The unemployment the higher interest rates generate kills people. The actual number is 37,000 people die for every one per cent increase in unemployment. Yet economists, governments and central banks ignore the body count that has been statistically established. I find that kind of wilful blindness to foreseeable human tragedies appalling. I will speak out whenever I can for these silent victims.
Show threadAmgineMar 11, 2024

@marius_gs

In which country? In which setting/context within that country?

And then there is the question: if governments cannot efficiently market their debt, what happens to how many people?

The problem with almost all air-quotes economic end-air-quotes topics is: it is an art. It is not a science. One cannot prove causal relationships. For example, in the USA higher unemployment === higher uninsured, but that is not the case in the UK, so the UK may not have the correlations of the US.