Briefly:

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There was little change to employment in June, leaving total job losses for the past three months at 13,000. The unemployment rate moved up slightly by 0.2 percentage points to 8.6%.

Further losses in full time employment offset the gains in part time. Since employment peaked in October 2008, full-time losses (-454,000) have been only partially offset by part-time gains (+84,000), leaving total employment down by 370,000.

Meanwhile, self-employment rose by 37,000 June, while the number of employees in the private sector decreased by 39,000. Since October, self-employment has grown by 1.5%, whereas the number of employees has fallen by 3.3% in the private sector and by 1.4% in the public sector.

Employment was virtually unchanged in June in all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador, where it went up by 2,500.

There were gains in information, culture and recreation in June, as well as in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing. Industries with notable declines were manufacturing and business, building and other support services.

In June, employment for youths aged 15 to 24 fell by 33,000, pushing their unemployment rate up a full percentage point to 15.9%, the highest rate in 11 years.

Employment losses in June for youths were offset by gains among workers aged 55 and over, whose employment increased 33,000. Since last October, employment growth has been steady for older workers (+78,000 or +2.9%), particularly among women. Older workers are the only age group that have added to their numbers since the start of the economic downturn.

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Merrill Lynch revises crude oil forecasts

Analysts at Merrill Lynch recently changed the prices on their 2009 average Brent and WTI crude oil forcasts to $59/bbl and $58.50/bbl, respectively, from $52/bbl.

The revisons were made after the occurrence of a weaker U.S. dollar, improvement in global liquidity conditions and a slightly tighter-than-expected global oil market balance.

On a quarterly basis, the analysts now see WTI and Brent crude oil prices averaging $67/bbl and $66/bbl in the third quarter of 2009, respectively, and $64/bbl in fourth quarter of 2009, compared to $56/bbl and $61/bbl prior.

Broadly, oil consumption is significantly below last year’s levels in the U.S., Europe and OECD Asia, particularly in Japan. Although gasoline demand has improved somewhat around the world, demand for middle distillates — a fuel typically more linked to the industrial sector-remains depressed.

With crude oil and petroleum product inventories at very high levels, any near-term upside to oil prices will be limited and temporary dip below $60/bbl is even anticipated.

Medium-term, large fiscal and monetary policy stimuli will have a significant impact on economic activity particularly in Asia. Merrill’s global economics team just increased BAS-ML’s global real GDP growth forecasts from 3.2% to 3.7% for 2010.

The company expressed particular concern that a strong uplift in non-OPEC supply on a medium-term horizon would be unlikely. Thus, as OPEC spare capacity starts to shrink by the end of next year, a robust emerging market demand outlook and more dollars in circulation will likely push global crude oil prices towards an average of $82/bbl in the fourth quarter of 2010.

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Sprott announces reorganization and change of name to Cadomin

Sprott Molybdenum Participation Corporation announced today that it has effected the distribution of substantially all of its assets to its shareholders, consisting of a cash distribution of approximately $1.76 per share and one new common share in exchange for each old common share of the Corporation.

As part of the reorganization, the corporation has changed its name to Cadomin Capital Corp. The corporation is in the process of completing its application to list its new common shares on the NEX board of the TSX Venture Exchange.

As part of the reorganization, there are also changes to the executive officers and the composition of the board of directors, effective immediately.

Darryl Coates has been appointed as president and CEO. Eric Sprott has resigned as chairman, CEO, president and a director along with Maria Smirnova, vice-president.

McGoey has been appointed as the chief financial officer of the corporation, replacing Iryna Gordiyenko.

(07/10/09)