Canadians gave a “collective shrug” to bad economic news showing that the country shed more than 30,000 jobs in July, according to the latest “Canadian Consumer Confidence” survey conducted by TNS.
The study showed a slight upward tick for Canadian consumer confidence in August, from 94.6 to 95.0 – which is regarded as statistically insignificant.
“Canadians are spending their time by the barbecue and not paying attention, except maybe to the Olympics,” said Norman Baillie-David, senior vice-president of TNS in Canada and director of the marketing and social research firm’s monthly tracking study. “Unless they were one of the unfortunate ones having lost a job, Canadians have given the recent bad news a collective shrug.”
The Present Situation Index, which tracks how people are feeling about the economy right now, also saw a negligible decline, from 94.7 to 94.
One statistical change of note came in the Expectations Index, which tracks people’s outlook for the economy six months from now. It rose an “encouraging” 1.5 points said TNS, to 98.8 from 97.3, regaining some of the loss from the previous month.
The Buy Index, which measures the extent to which Canadians feel that now is a good time to purchase a big-ticket item such as a car or a major household appliance, held steady – ticking up slightly from 91.8 to 92.6.
The Buy Index is one of the most important of the study’s sub-indices, said Baillie-David, because if people feel now is a good time to buy they may act on their impulse, providing real economic stimulus.
“The good news is that the drop in employment hasn’t caused Canadians to hold their wallets tighter,” said Baillie-David. “However, we’ll have to wait and see what September brings, when people are back from the cottage and paying full attention again.”
Data published by Statistics Canada on Aug. 10 showed that after two months of little change, Canada lost 30,000 jobs in July, attributable to losses in part-time work, said StatsCan.
The job losses came in wholesale and retail trade; professional, scientific and technical services, public administration and natural resources, and were concentrated among women 55 and over, said StatsCan.
The TNS study results are based on telephone interviews conducted with 1,014 nationally representative Canadian adults between Aug. 6 and Aug. 9. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1% 19 times out of 20.
