The National Unemployment Clock was created to raise awareness about the alarming number of unemployed Canadians, and the disturbing amount of Canadian jobs being outsourced to other countries.
The clock was unveiled to the public on May 6, 2009. On July 14, 2009, Statistics Canada released June 2009 unemployment data. The number of unemployed people, in addition to the amount of time that elapses before the clock increases by one, was adjusted to reflect this updated data.
The time increment in which the clock increases by one is based on the unadjusted statistical average of number of unemployed people between October 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009, which is provided by Statistics Canada.
The following table describes data that occurred between October 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009.
| Total Number of Jobs Lost | 473,200 |
| Total Number of Days | 273 |
| Average Number of Full-Time Jobs Lost Per Day | 1,733 |
| Average Number of Full-Time Jobs Lost Per Hour | 72 |
| Average Number of Full-Time Jobs Lost Per Minute | 1.20 |
Based on this data, we can reasonably postulate that on average a Canadian is losing their job every 50.0 seconds.
To arrive at a legitimate estimation of how many people are currently unemployed in Canada, we first have to look at the total number of unemployed Canadians as of June 30, 2009. The following table provides this data:
| Number of Employable Canadians | 18,416,700 |
| Number of Unemployed, Employable Canadians | 1,505,900 |
We then have to estimate, using our calculation above, how many people have lost their job between July 1, 2009 and July 14, 2009 at 2:35 p.m. (the time we reset the clock). To do this, we use the following variables:
| Total Number of Seconds Between July 1, 2009 at 12:00 a.m. and July 14, 2009 at 2:35 p.m. | 1,175,700 |
| Average Number of Seconds Elapsed Before a Person Loses a Job (from above) | 50.0 |
| Total Estimated Number of Jobs Lost Between July 1, 2009 at 12:00 a.m. and July 14, 2009 at 2:35 p.m. | 23,587 |
We then add the number of full-time jobs lost as of June 30, 2009 to our estimation and we arrive at: 1,529,487.
Therefore on July 14, at 2:35 p.m., the National Employment Clock was reset to 1,529,487 and began increasing by one every 50.0 seconds.
If you wish to read more about Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, click here.