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Ontario job creation falls well short of plan

If Ontario tries to cut its way to a balanced budget, weak employment figures suggest the cuts may have to get a whole lot worse.  Here's why.   In the Budget, the government projected 100,000 job growth in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. That's an annual increase of about 1.4%.  But the government is having a problem meeting its jobs target in 2014.   Comparing the average of the first six months of 2013 with the first six of 2014 shows an increase from 6.861 million jobs to only 6.904 million.  That's only 43,000 new jobs over the year, an increase 0.65% -- less than half of the government's target.   The Public Sector: Given sharp public sector austerity, the main brake on job creation has been public sector employment.  Even without Tim Hudak, public sector employment has decreased between the first six months of 2013 and the first six months of 2014 by some 40,000 jobs.   The good news is that the decline may be easing.  For the most recent m

Ontario Public Sector Employment down 55,500 Jobs

New Statistics Canada figures indicate that public sector employment in Ontario  fell another 7,400 jobs in May. As a result, public sector employment is now down 55,500 jobs since April 2011.  That is a decline of 4%. Trade unionists have long warned that government austerity would bring mass job loss to the public sector and these figures appear to bear that out.   Austerity isn't  doing much for private sector employment either.  Since April 2011, there has been a total private sector job growth of 1%.   Worse, Ontario lost 26,900 private sector jobs in May.   Total employment in the province has increased 18,800 -- or 0.3% since April 2011.   With the modest private sector job increase being more than cancelled by the much sharper decline in  public sector jobs, all of that increase  is accounted for by an extra 27,400 'self employed' people in Ontario. (Which, in some cases, is not much different from unemployment.)  Class of worker