January 2012 Canadian Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

250,000 jobs vacant, new StatsCan survey says






A new measure of Canada`s labour market shows a quarter of a million jobs remain vacant even as unemployment remains high.




Canadian businesses had, on average, 248,000 job openings last fall, Statistics Canada's new job vacancy survey shows. It found there were 3.3 unemployed people in Canada for every vacancy in the three months to September.





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[Ally]

Unemployed outnumber jobs more than 3 to 1: StatsCan





OTTAWA ` There were an average of 3.3 unemployed people for every available position in Canada in the three months ending in September, according to a new Statistics Canada job vacancies report.




There were approximately 248,000 job vacancies in the period, the federal agency reported Tuesday, with the highest number of unemployed in educational services (a ratio of 10 people per vacancy) and the lowest in wholesale trade, and health care and social assistance (1.4 to one in each sector).





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[Ally]

Euro crisis will hurt entire world: IMF




The International Monetary Fund painted a stark picture of the global economy Tuesday, slashing the outlook for world growth while forecasting a damaging recession in Europe that will leave no country, including Canada, unscathed.




In its January World Economic Outlook update, the IMF cut its projection for global growth in 2012 to 3.3%, down 70 basis points from its forecast in September. The global economic body blamed this largely on a `mild recession` expected this year after the eurozone entered a `perilous new phase` toward the end of 2011.





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[Ally]

IMF: Canadian economy victim of global problems, to weaken in 2012





OTTAWA - Canada's recovery is being dragged down by a cascading crisis in Europe and weakening conditions elsewhere, the International Monetary Fund suggests in its latest economic outlook.




The Washington-based monitor of global financial affairs said Tuesday that Canada's economy will likely now grow by only 1.7 per cent ` three notches lower than the Bank of Canada's estimate just last week ` and two-tenths of a point lower than its own previous call in September.





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[Ally]

Housing prices fall in November






OTTAWA ` Canadian house prices dropped in November for the first time in nearly a year, according to the monthly Teranet-National Bank house price index released Wednesday.







The 0.2 per cent drop followed two months of flat prices, and was the first decline in the index since a "brief correction during the three months ending November 2010," said National Bank senior economist Marc Pinsonneault.







The national composite index, which tracks registered prices of homes sold at least twice, shows prices fell in eight of the 11 metropolitan markets tracked ` one more than in October.






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[Ally]

Canada embracing its inner oil




Global energy superpower versus inward-focused fortress. It`s hard to believe these are the energy visions of Canada and the United States, and that it`s Canada that is going big, while the U.S. is going home.




But there you have it. After nixing the Keystone XL pipeline that would have imported lots of secure oil-sands oil from Canada, U.S. President Barack Obama made it abundantly clear in his State of the Union address that he wants a future based on U.S.-made energy, even if it takes subsidies to get there.





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[Ally]

Near zero until 'at least 2014': Fed




After three years, three rounds of quantitative easing and hundreds of billions in bank bailouts, the U.S. economy remains in the dumpster, a major worry for the Federal Reserve, which acknowledged as much Wednesday with a decision to keep interest rates effectively at zero until at least the end of 2014.




The Fed policy committee voted at a meeting in Washington to keep rates close to the lowest level in history for at least the next three years, up from a previous target of the middle of 2013.





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[Ally]

Should Maritimers pay more taxes than Albertans?




Subsection 36(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982, states the following: "Parliament and the government of Canada are committed to the principle of making equalization payments to ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation."





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[Ally]

Confidence up, but pessimists continue to outnumber optimists: Conference Board of Canada





OTTAWA ` The Conference Board of Canada's consumer confidence index report for January is a good news/bad news story.







The good news is that consumer confidence is up four points from December's figure, which had been the index's lowest level in more than two years.







The bad news is that even with that four-point gain, at 73.9 the index is still 14.3 points below its reading in January 2011, and the people who see the glass as half-empty are in the majority.






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[Ally]

Ottawa moves to tighten provincial immigration program




Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is setting out more stringent standards for the way provinces pick immigrants, even as he lauds the strategy as a success and economic boon.




The Provincial Nominee Program, which allows provinces to select their own quota of immigrants based on local economic needs, has received plaudits for turning Prairie provinces into migrant magnets.





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[Ally]

Canada downgraded





Canada's relationship with the United States is facing recent strains unseen since the signing of the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement 25 years ago. Unlike early episodes of Canadian angst over nationalism, this stress is due to the U.S. taking Canada, its most important and reliable ally, far too much for granted.




Even President Obama's State of Union address mentioned a host of countries throughout the world with no reference to Canada, which he recently kicked in the teeth with his decision over the Keystone XL pipeline.





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[Ally]

Canada keeps its triple-A rating




Amid the panic that consumed government debt markets in much of the world last year, Canada was a bastion of calm by comparison.




Canadian governments and their agencies capitalized on a scarcity of credibility, raising cheap money with the promise of public-sector stability.




As Western governments were hit with ratings downgrades and worse, investors clamoured for all things Canadian.





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