Revised TD Bank Report

As foreshadowed by Andrew, TD Economics has addressed the concerns raised on this blog about its April 15 report by replacing this document with a revised April 16 version. The new endnotes cite the CLC publications and acknowledge that they were “inappropriately left out of the original verson [sic] of the report.”

TD has also amended its figures. The April 15 version indicated a loss of 198,400 manufacturing jobs since 2002. To his credit, Julian Beltrame of Canadian Press recognized that this figure was too low and reported 212,000 lost manufacturing jobs instead.

Today’s TD report indicates a loss of 347,300 manufacturing jobs from November 2002 through December 2007, which is consistent with the seasonally-adjusted figures that Andrew and I calculated from the Labour Force Survey.

Thanks to Don Drummond and company for resolving this episode.

UPDATE (April 17): The Financial Post printed the following abridged version of a CanWest story on the TD episode. Thanks to Paul Tulloch for bringing the CanWest story to my attention.

TD Study sounds familiar to labour

National Post

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Page: FP6

Source: Canwest News Service

Labour economists wonder if they should be flattered. But there’s no wondering how TD Bank economists must feel– red faced — after it was revealed yesterday that their widely quoted study this week on the declining quality of jobs in Canada not only echoed earlier reports by the union economists, but, in part, did so word for word, and without any attribution.  “I suppose that imitation is the highest form of flattery,” Erin Weir, an economist with the United Steelworkers, wrote online in The Progressive Economics Forum.  “I was pleased to see it highlight many of the same general trends that [Canadian Labour Congress economist] Andrew [Jackson] and I emphasized: the sharp decline in manufacturing jobs, the increase in part-time work, the rise of self-employment, and wages barely outpacing inflation in Alberta.”