Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
In the midst of Canada’s bleak October job report, Statistics Canada reported one bright spot: that the resource sector added 12,000 jobs.
Canada, overall, lost 54,000 jobs in October pushing the unemployment rate up .2% to 7.3%.
Statistics Canada says that the bulk of the decline in occurred in manufacturing, followed by construction. However, natural resources employment has grown by 5.0% over the past 12 months. The service sector remained unchanged.
Despite the bad news, Statistics Canada sees some good long-term trends developing:
In the 12 months to October, employment in the goods sector has fallen 0.7%, with growth earlier in the period dampened by declines in recent months.
In contrast, employment in the service sector continued on its long-term upward trend, growing 2.0% since October 2010. Accommodation and food services led the way (+8.2%), followed by transportation and warehousing (+3.7%), health care and social assistance (+3.4%), and professional, scientific and technical services (+3.4%).
