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Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said that unemployment needs to rise in order to slow down inflation, although elevated levels of job vacancies could soften the blow. In a speech in Toronto hosted by the Public Policy Forum, Mr. Macklem said that Canada’s labour market is overheating, with unemployment near a record low and businesses struggling to find workers. This is feeding through into inflation, as companies bid up wages to compete for employees. “We need to rebalance the labour market,” Mr. Macklem said. “This will be a difficult adjustment. We want to do this in the best way possible for Canadian workers and businesses.” Mr. Macklem’s comments come on the heels of a blowout jobs report last Friday. Employment jumped by 108,000 in October, recouping all of the jobs lost during the summer slowdown. Average hourly wages were up 5.6 per cent that month compared to the previous year, while the rate of unemployment remained steady at 5.2 per cent as work force participation ro...

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said that unemployment needs to rise in order to slow down inflation, although elevated levels of job vacancies could soften the blow. In a speech in Toronto hosted by the Public policy forum, Mr. Macklem said that Canada’s labour market is overheating. This is feeding through into inflation, as companies bid up wages to compete for employees. “We need to rebalance the labour market,” Mr. Macklem said. “This will be a difficult adjustment. We want to do this in the best way possible for Canadian workers and businesses.” Mr. Macklem’s comments come on the heels of a blowout jobs report last Friday. Employment jumped by 108,000 in October, recouping all of the jobs lost during the summer slowdown. Average hourly wages were up 5.6 per cent that month compared to the previous year, while the rate of unemployment remained steady at 5.2 per cent as work force participation rose. The strength of the labour market is a challenge for the central bank. Mr. ...

Used vehicles for sale are seen at an auto mall in Ottawa, on April 26, 2021. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press In mid-2021, when “transitory” was the go-to word for central bankers trying to ease concerns about inflation, U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell highlighted surging used-car and truck prices, which were up 45 per cent from the year before and accounted for one-third of the jump in core inflation. Citing a “perfect storm” of strong demand and supply disruptions, he urged calm: “They should stop going up and at some point should actually go down.” “Transitory” was eventually dropped from central-bank speeches as inflation proved to be more entrenched, but on the used-vehicle front, Mr. Powell eventually turned out to be right. In October, used-car and truck prices saw their fourth straight monthly decline, which economists took as a sign that overall inflation has turned a corner. Even though price tags on used vehicles are still well above where they were in 2019, the...

Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales were unchanged in September at $70.4-billion. The agency says the result came as sales of durable goods rose 1.0 per cent to $34.1-billion, helped higher by an 11.1 per cent gain in aerospace product and parts. Meanwhile, sales of non-durable goods fell 0.9 per cent to $36.3-billion in September, as sales of petroleum and coal products fell 2.4 per cent and food industry sales dropped 1.8 per cent. Sales in constant dollars edged down 0.2 per cent in September. In a separate report, Statistics Canada says wholesale sales rose 0.1 per cent to $81.8-billion, as sales rose in five of seven subsectors. Wholesale sales of personal and household goods rose 4.3 per cent to $11.2-billion, the largest monthly increase since June 2020, while the food, beverage and tobacco subsector climbed 1.9 per cent to $14.9-billion. Overall wholesale sales fell 0.2 per cent in constant dollars in September. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadian-manufacturing-...

A motorist fills up his truck with gas in Toronto. Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press Canada’s inflation rate held steady in October after slowing for three months, increasing the likelihood that the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates again in December. The Consumer Price Index rose 6.9 per cent in October from a year earlier, matching the inflation rate in September, Statistics Canada said in a report on Wednesday. The result was in line with analyst expectations. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.7 per cent – just shy of the 0.8-per-cent increase that Bay Street analysts had predicted. After hitting a near-four-decade high of 8.1 per cent in June, the annual inflation rate has eased somewhat, largely because gasoline prices have fallen from record highs seen in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Related: Higher TFSA contribution limit and lower taxes are among the rare upsides of high inflation But that dynamic shifted again in October. Gas prices ju...

Women now account for a record-high share of Canada’s top income earners, but still have a long way to go to achieve parity with men both in terms of their share of top earners and the size of their paycheques. The latest high-income figures released by Statistics Canada this week show women made up 25.4 per cent of the top 1 per cent of income tax filers in 2020, a share that’s risen steadily over the past four decades. At the provincial level, women in Alberta made up the smallest share of top earners, at 21.4 per cent, while in Newfoundland women accounted for the highest share at 28.4 per cent. A 2019 study by Statistics Canada shed light on the working women who make up the top 1 per cent. They tend to be better educated than their male counterparts, are twice as likely to work in the health care sector – top one-percenter men are more likely to hold management jobs – and are less likely to be married or have children than high-earning men. While there are more women in the top ...

The cost of commuting is forcing some Ontario residents who moved outside the GTA during the pandemic to reconsider their place of residence as employers call workers back to the office. LARS HAGBERG/THE CANADIAN PRESS The Canadian Press Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more. Is the cost of long work commutes worth it? When remote work took off during the pandemic, housing markets surrounding the Greater Toronto Area became increasingly popular for homebuyers priced out of the region. But as workers are being called back to the office – even just for a few days a week – those who moved out of town are learning that their commutes are increasingly long and expensive. As Salmaan Farooqui reports, one woman who bought a home in Belleville now spends $600 a month to travel to her Toronto-based finance job three ti...

An employee at Neal Brothers picks products at their warehouse and office in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Nov. 17, 2022. The company says it has offered employees paid sick leave for years. Christopher Katsarov/Tausi Insider Most provinces have not made permanent changes to sick-leave laws during the pandemic, despite a sharp rise in respiratory illnesses and pressure from Ottawa for provincial governments to match a new federal sick-day law that comes into effect next month. For more than two years, labour and health care groups have urged governments to set minimum numbers of paid sick days, so workers don’t have to choose between staying home – and losing wages – or going in to work sick. But few governments have listened. “During the pandemic, it became very clear to everyone who was not an essential worker how bad things were for essential workers,” said Deena Ladd, executive director of Workers’ Action Centre, a non-profit group that advocates for low-wage, undocumented and migrant...

People walk in Vancouver’s business district over the lunch hour on April 22. According to a new report, the city experienced a 48-per-cent decline in mobility compared with prepandemic times JENNIFER GAUTHIER/Vancouver Freelance The downtowns of most major Canadian cities continue to face a substantial dip in foot traffic compared with prepandemic norms – but the opposite is true of smaller towns and suburbs within commutable distance of those cities, data from a new study show. The results of the study, produced by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Business Data Lab, suggests that almost three years into the pandemic, a new economic pattern is emerging in metropolitan areas across the country – a hollowing out of the central hubs of large cities owing largely to hybrid work, and growth in mobility in the outlying spokes of those cities. “Canada’s biggest cities are significantly behind in terms of workers returning to the office. But we found that there’s been a substantial increa...

Shoppers at the Toronto Eaton Centre, on July 18. Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail Retail sales fell 0.5 per cent to $61.1-billion in September led by a drop in sales at gas stations along with food and beverage stores, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. However, the agency said its initial estimate for October pointed to a gain of 1.5 per cent for the month, though it cautioned the figure would be revised. “Retail sales fell in September; though the drop was smaller in volume terms, real spending took a notable step back in the third quarter,” BMO economist Shelly Kaushik wrote in a report. “However, solid advance estimates for retail and manufacturing sales, as well as wholesale trade, point to a recovery in October.” For September, Statistics Canada said sales at gas stations fell 2.4 per cent as sales in volume terms at gas stations rose 4.2 per cent, but gas prices fell 7.4 per cent. Meanwhile, sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers were relatively unchanged as sales at used car deale...

A labour expert said the tense bargaining between Loblaw and its distribution workers in Calgary is emblematic of the wider labour movement in 2022 amid the effects of the pandemic and rising inflation. The Teamsters Local Union 987 of Alberta said almost all of the 534 unionized workers at a Calgary distribution centre for Loblaw were served layoff notices effective this week amid ongoing contract negotiations. The union said workers have rejected two offers from the employer and are asking for better quality-of-life and wage increases. Simon Black, an associate professor of labour studies at Brock University, said while wage increases are important to workers at a time of high inflation, there’s also an increased focus on working conditions in negotiations, such as scheduling, time off and breaks. He said the recent strikes by education workers in Ontario are an example of this, where workers were asking for guaranteed staffing levels. “They’re not bargaining strictly around wages,...

Statistics Canada says the number of job vacancies was up 3.8 per cent in September at 994,800. The agency says the month-over-month increase was largely attributable to seasonal variations, as job vacancies typically peak in September. The number of vacancies in the accommodation and food services sector rose 12.0 per cent to 152,400, while the construction industry saw a gain of 14.0 per cent to 93,900. The number of vacancies in manufacturing was down 11.3 per cent at 76,000 in September. On a year-over-year basis, Statistics Canada says the total number of job vacancies was little changed. The job vacancy rate, measured as the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand, was 5.7 per cent in September, up from 5.4 per cent in August, but down from 5.9 per cent in September 2021. https://www.tausiinsider.com/job-vacancies-in-canada-rose-3-8-in-september-statscan-says/?feed_id=332893&_unique_id=64665571496ef

For all the talk of corporate “greedflation,” profit margins for non-financial companies are offering yet another sign high inflation and rising interest rates are hammering the Canadian economy. New figures released by Statistics Canada this week show corporate profits in the third quarter fell for the first time on a seasonally-adjusted basis since the start of 2020, when Statscan began reporting corporate financial performance in that way. Net income before taxes declined 8.1 per cent to $137-billion compared with the previous quarter. The earnings drop is putting a crunch on corporate profit margins, which had remained largely in line with prepandemic levels, despite companies in many sectors reporting record profits on surging revenues over the past two years. Though analysts have been warnings for months about a slowdown in corporate profits, now that margins are being squeezed it could have a nasty knock-on effect for the rest of the economy and will likely heighten recession...

For women and marginalized groups, going for after-work drinks with other employees isn't always comfortable. istock Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more. Not everyone wants to go for after-work drinks Since the days of Mad Men , going for after-work drinks with your co-workers and boss has long been seen as a way for company employees to network and bond. But as Sarah Micho writes, for women and other marginalized groups, this common social practice isn’t always inclusive. Employees may not drink for a variety of reasons, including religious or cultural beliefs, health and substance and abuse issues. Whatever the reason, the consequences of opting out may go beyond missing a social occasion. It can create barriers to professional growth and advancement, which is why it’s time for company leaders to rethi...

More retirement-age Canadians are still paying off a mortgage, and financial advisers say rising interest rates will make it even more challenging for Canadians to pay off their home before they retire. The number of people older than 65 with an outstanding mortgage in their residence increased from 1.2 million to 1.5 million between 2016 and 2021 according to Statistics Canada, although the agency noted they don’t measure whether others residing in the home are contributing to mortgage payments. However, the number of seniors living alone with a mortgage also grew, from roughly 181,000 to 220,000 in the same time frame. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data also showed an increase in the share of people aged 65 and older with a mortgage. People in that age group accounted for 10 per cent of mortgages in 2017, and 13 per cent of mortgages in 2022. The age group also accounts for 9 per cent of the country’s outstanding mortgage balance, compared with 7 per cent in 2017. Furthermore, ...

Former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz delivers a keynote address to a business conference, on Nov. 24 in Ottawa. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press As the Canadian economy slips toward something that’s going to look an awful lot like stagflation, it’s hard to avoid comparisons to the 1970s, when that term earned its infamy. But Stephen Poloz wants us to remember that there is one key difference: We’re a lot older now. The former Bank of Canada governor isn’t noting the nearly five decades of time passing, nor talking about some sense of older-and-wiser. He’s referring to demographics. When the economic doldrums hit nearly a half-century ago, the massive and economically influential baby boomer population was flooding into the labour market. Today, those same people are retiring in droves. That reversal creates a very different looking stagflation – and a mirror image of the pitfalls for economic policy makers. “The influx of boomers into the work force in the 1970s pushed up unemp...