Friday, November 5, 2010

October Labour Force Survey released

Stat Can has released the October 2010 Labour Force Survey. There is a teeny-weeny improvement in the unemployment rate from 8.0% to 7.9%. CBC is reporting the unemployment rate may have improved "because 4,300 fewer people were in the labour force looking for work."

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

"Will it get me a job?"

One of University Affairs feature articles in the most recent edition includes the article, Will it get me a job? about the expectations of prospective students at Canadian institutions.

We asked applicants what motivated them to go to university, and the answer we got was that 99 percent of them chose either “career preparation” or “career advancement” as one of their reasons.

The interview subjects also make some assumptions about various programs--how students that enter into environmental studies are not "hippies" but "careerists"--that I can't agree with, though I do think that many humanities programs are trying to explain how a degree program will lead to a viable career and not a permanent berth in a parent's basement.