General Business Updates and News

[MidTowner]

The Lear Corp plant in Kitchener manufactured car seat assemblies...

Oh. Thanks. I thought they did aircraft interiors, but I guess I'm confusing it with another company. The name "Lear" likely made me think planes.

[panamaniac]

From today's Record, more signs of life in the local manufacturing economy:

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6153...ner-dec-7/

[rangersfan]

Great story on the growing tech eco system Downtown.

http://m.therecord.com/news-story/616040...s-downtown

[panamaniac]

According to Statistics Canada, the Kitchener CMA's labour force lost 8,800 people (November 2014 to November 2015) and employment fell by 7,900 in the same period, even as the population grew by 4,000. Is this possible?

[Markster]

According to Statistics Canada, the Kitchener CMA's labour force lost 8,800 people (November 2014 to November 2015) and employment fell by 7,900 in the same period, even as the population grew by 4,000.  Is this possible?

Yes.

7,900 people lost their jobs
8,800 unemployed people stopped looking for a job
4,000 people have joined the region, and are not looking for jobs
(meaning a total of 12,800 new non-job-seekers)

The magic number that makes it all balance is labour force participation. People who are unemployed, but are not looking for work. Children, stay-at-home parents, retirees, etc, affect the numbers, but their counts are rarely reported in headlines.

If you are a megalomaniacal leader trying to improve your country's unemployment rate, then just give an incentive to people to stop looking for work. For example, if you allowed income-splitting, so married couples had an incentive to have one partner stay at home. If everyone who is unemployed stops looking for work, then overnight you get 0% unemployment! Think of the headlines!

[MidTowner]

If you are a megalomaniacal leader trying to improve your country's unemployment rate... For example, if you allowed income-splitting, so married couples had an incentive to have one partner stay at home.

....

The first part of your post explaining labour force participation, however, was factual and clear.

[tomh009]

The magic number that makes it all balance is labour force participation.  People who are unemployed, but are not looking for work. Children, stay-at-home parents, retirees, etc, affect the numbers, but their counts are rarely reported in headlines.

If you are a megalomaniacal leader trying to improve your country's unemployment rate, then just give an incentive to people to stop looking for work.

In the US, the unemployment benefits run out quickly, so there is a large chunk of population that cannot find jobs but is no longer officially looking for work, so is not counted as unemployed.  The result is an unemployment rate that's not comparable to Canada (or most other countries).  Maybe not intentional but the end result is an understated underemployment rate.

[Markster]

In the US, the unemployment benefits run out quickly, so there is a large chunk of population that cannot find jobs but is no longer officially looking for work, so is not counted as unemployed.

I'm be very curious to see a citation on that. I have a hard time believing that the US Census Bureau would honestly limit "unemployed" to only those who are receiving unemployment benefits.

Aha, that's such a common misconception, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually debunks it nearly first thing on this page:
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#where

Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the government uses the number of people collecting unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under state or federal government programs. But some people are still jobless when their benefits run out, and many more are not eligible at all or delay or never apply for benefits. So, quite clearly, UI information cannot be used as a source for complete information on the number of unemployed.

[tomh009]

OK, so I was right and I was wrong: the difference is not the length of unemployment but there is an important difference: "active" vs "passive" job searching. In the US, a person is not considered unemployed (or part of the work force) if he or she is only passively looking for employment. For example, searching web sites, reading newspaper ads etc is considered passive, and if that's all you did, US BLS will not count you as unemployed, it will assume you are not part of the labour force (well, labor force since it's the US). The difference might be about a percentage point in the unemployment rates.

More details here:
http://milescorak.com/2012/05/04/the-gap...t-appears/

[rangersfan]

Watserv has received an undisclosed investment to help them grow across the world.


http://m.therecord.com/news-story/619992...ng-pioneer

[panamaniac]

It has been pending for months, but the Record now reports that Lear Corp. has ended production at its Manitou Dr plant in Kitchener.  Production was shifted to a plant in Mexico earlier this year.  At one time, Lear employed 1,300 people in town.  The "For Sale" sign has been up out front for a couple of months - the plant and office are in good shape, so it will be interesting to see if something new eventually takes over.

So nothing is confirmed yet, but I understand that the Lear plant on Manitou Dr has been sold to a manufacturing company that does not now have operations in Kitchener.  I think it will be several months before there will be confirmation, however, it seems like very good news if it all works out.

[rangersfan]

Everalbum has opened an office in the Lang Tannery.

http://m.therecord.com/news-story/621149...rs-in-2016-

[Osiris]

I wonder who the "global-branded" tenant is? I remember Facebook was long rumoured for the Breithaupt block before Google snatched it all up - perhaps this is their consolation prize?

Still - great that this building will be properly repurposed rather than demolished.


http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6213...-be-saved/

[panamaniac]

I wonder who the "global-branded" tenant is? I remember Facebook was long rumoured for the Breithaupt block before Google snatched it all up - perhaps this is their consolation prize?

Still - great that this building will be properly repurposed rather than demolished.


http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6213...-be-saved/

Something like Mercers, perhaps?

[tomh009]

It could be one of the big four global accounting/consulting firms ... none of them are in the downtown core now, it would be great to see one of them locate in the Tannery.

EY and Deloitte have large offices in the region already, though, I don't think they would fit in the Tannery.  KPMG and PwC have much smaller operations in uptown Waterloo, so an expansion using the Tannery space could make sense.