General Business Updates and News

[dtkvictim]

Growing an economy by growing the population only benefits the wealthy who remain composed of roughly the same number of people, but with a larger underclass to profit from.

Does not logically follow.

I mean, I also don't believe in infinite growth, but that's a whole different discussion.

Is the logical inconsistency in just the quoted portion? If so, I don't mean to imply that it's the only possible outcome, just that it's our current reality. Wealth inequality would probably continue to grow without population growth, but I also believe our current population trends are a tool used to grow wealth inequality (whether intentional or not).

[bravado]

Immigration is the fundamental key to the vibrancy of the west - people wanting to move and contribute to your country is not a problem, it is an immense benefit that most of the world doesn't actually experience. It's one of our only secret weapons in global competition and we should be working as hard as possible to steal the best and brightest from across the world while we still can. Instead, we seem to be sticking most of them 20 to a house and saying job done now that our fast food shops are well staffed.

There are ways to handle immigration and growth responsibly, turning off the taps completely is not the answer.

[tomh009]

Wealth inequality would probably continue to grow without population growth, but I also believe our current population trends are a tool used to grow wealth inequality (whether intentional or not).

Inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) has been fairly stable in Canada for a while. It was around 0.31 for about a decade, but it dropped to 0.299 in 2019, and then to 0.28 range in 2020-21. Those last two were likely impacted by the COVID income replacement programs so they may not be comparable, though.

But the point is that inequality in Canada has not been growing in recent years. (That's not to say that there isn't work remaining to be done, but at least we are not going backwards.)

[danbrotherston]

I don't think it's hidden...it's discussed pretty clearly. GDP/capita is a at least as common a statistic as total GDP when talking about wealth and living conditions:

https://financialpost.com/opinion/canada...ince-1930s

But when it comes to defining a recession total GDP is used, whether that is the right method isn't that relevant, it is the standard method, and choosing not to use it must be motivated by something other than trying to advocate a viewpoint through branding.

Again disclaimer, I'm not interested in giving Better Dwelling a click so I don't know what they said. My point was just that I see nothing wrong with directing more conversation towards per capita metrics, and I disagree with you that it's discussed very frequently among the general population. Honestly, from the older generation of my extended family the only aspect of worsening quality of life that they have noticed and discuss is the housing crisis, and as home owners the discussion doesn't go much beyond "well that sucks..." and sharing status quo maintaining positions. In other words, they are like most people who think in terms of "economy good" or "economy bad" in the most surface level manner possible.

Of course you can find media articles and plenty of people discussing GDP per capita and other more relevant details, but I don't think the average person looks even just below the surface to even see that.

I'm not sure I follow your last point. It's silly to try and redefine something well established, but less silly to try and define something new. But regardless, the point underlying the definition is what actually matters here.

I don’t think my family discusses any GDP statistic either. But I also think stagnant GDP per capita isn’t the cause of our current woes. I think we have seen equality increase and housing market increasingly not provide for our needs.

As for the “gdp per capita recession” it seems like an attempt to redefine recession or at least capitalize off the term “recession” to me. But obviously just my opinion.

To me at least when you are a wealthy nation such as ours I believe equality and a well functioning regulatory system is more important than GDP or GDP per capita growth. I.e we have enough wealth for all of us to be happy right now, if we aren’t it’s a different problem. But I also realize that such a statement has a certain group of economists seeing red right now.

[tomh009]

To me at least when you are a wealthy nation such as ours I believe equality and a well functioning regulatory system is more important than GDP or GDP per capita growth. I.e we have enough wealth for all of us to be happy right now, if we aren’t it’s a different problem. But I also realize that such a statement has a certain group of economists seeing red right now.

Economists don't make the decisions, though, the politicians do. (Sometimes they listen to economists or other subject matter experts before making decisions, and sometimes they don't.)

[danbrotherston]

To me at least when you are a wealthy nation such as ours I believe equality and a well functioning regulatory system is more important than GDP or GDP per capita growth. I.e we have enough wealth for all of us to be happy right now, if we aren’t it’s a different problem. But I also realize that such a statement has a certain group of economists seeing red right now.

Economists don't make the decisions, though, the politicians do. (Sometimes they listen to economists or other subject matter experts before making decisions, and sometimes they don't.)

You know, I hemmed and hawed about what word to use, and I chose to be conservative.

Yes, economists are policy wonks and don't necessarily always matter...but I think it's clear that the growth mindset is (even if driven by economists) a very broad belief in our society...basically almost anyone with a BA believes absolutely that growth MUST occur or the world will end.

[dtkvictim]

Immigration is the fundamental key to the vibrancy of the west - people wanting to move and contribute to your country is not a problem, it is an immense benefit that most of the world doesn't actually experience. It's one of our only secret weapons in global competition and we should be working as hard as possible to steal the best and brightest from across the world while we still can. Instead, we seem to be sticking most of them 20 to a house and saying job done now that our fast food shops are well staffed.

There are ways to handle immigration and growth responsibly, turning off the taps completely is not the answer.

I'm not intending to (nor do I want to) start a discussion on the net value of immigration. That wasn't my point at all.

The rest of your post seems to actually be in agreement with my argument, despite seemingly making this post in opposition. The immigrants living 20 to a house and working terrible jobs for criminal pay are still Canadians. This represents a marked decrease in the Canadian quality of life, just that significant portions of that decrease are the burden of new immigrants and relatively hidden from Canadian born citizens and immigrants from further back. That is, to reiterate my initial point, immigration can be (and I think is) used to mask a declining quality of life.

[ZEBuilder]

KWCs economy is apparently the best in terms of new job growth from StatsCan data even taking into consideration the interest rate hikes.

This article from the Windsor Star says that Windsor is second, it mentions that KWC is first on the list.

[nms]

If Windsor had nearly 50,000 new jobs posted since March 2022 (48,000 being full-time), as first place, "Kitchener area" had a number higher then that. What the article doesn't say, of those posted jobs, how many get filled? I have noticed what seems like a higher than usual number of signs large and small advertising for employment. Is there a disconnect between the jobs that need to be filled and those who are willing (or able) to fill them?

[dtkvictim]

If Windsor had nearly 50,000 new jobs posted since March 2022 (48,000 being full-time), as first place, "Kitchener area" had a number higher then that. What the article doesn't say, of those posted jobs, how many get filled? I have noticed what seems like a higher than usual number of signs large and small advertising for employment.  Is there a disconnect between the jobs that need to be filled and those who are willing (or able) to fill them?

This is definitely the case, especially for low skilled low paying jobs (who wants to work retail or fast food if it can't pay rent?). There is also an increasing trend of "fake" job postings, for various reasons, so the number of posting should be taken with a grain of salt.

[panamaniac]

Fake job postings? Who and why?

[plam]

If Windsor had nearly 50,000 new jobs posted since March 2022 (48,000 being full-time), as first place, "Kitchener area" had a number higher then that. What the article doesn't say, of those posted jobs, how many get filled? I have noticed what seems like a higher than usual number of signs large and small advertising for employment.  Is there a disconnect between the jobs that need to be filled and those who are willing (or able) to fill them?

I've also read that companies are having trouble recruiting for always-in-person jobs, and that people are way more keen to take jobs where there is the option of being remote some of the time.

[dtkvictim]

Fake job postings?  Who and why?

I've heard all kinds of reasoning

• Not wanting to replace employees who have quit (basically downsizing), but needing to appease the remaining overworked employees by promising that they are hiring without any actual intention to hire
  
• To give the impression of a successful and growing business
  
• To collect data on the current state of the labour market, and potentially to stockpile candidates for a future real opening
  
• To give the impression of an open hiring process for a position that is actually filled (i.e. given to a close friend, or even created specifically for them)
  
• While not "fake" in the same sense as the others, job postings are all scraped and replicated on dozens of different websites and may remain up many months after the position has been filled, which has the same end result for applicants
  

But the bottom line is that posting a job is borderline free these days, so any business that thinks they can benefit in any way from a fake job posting has little reason not to.

And I should clarify that I can't attest to the prevalence or validity of these, it's just what I've heard.

[ac3r]

Waterloo Region’s economy has ‘every reason for optimism,’ report says: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...048a2.html

[Bytor]

Waterloo Region’s economy has ‘every reason for optimism,’ report says: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...048a2.html

Who commissioned the report from the Conference Board of Canada? Based on their report "Where the Rubber Meets the Road: How Much Motorists Pay for Road Infrastructure", they seem to have a tendency to slant the report in a way the commissioning group will find favourable. In that particular report, for the CAA, they seem to do everything they can to minimise the how much of road maintenance costs are assigned cars and maximise how much revenue (fuel taxes, licensing fees) rather than trucks, in order to make cars seem economically palatable.