CANADIAN EMPLOYMENT

Baby boom generation

• largest birth cohort in canadian history 

  • Drastic effects on canadian society: expansion of post secondary institutions, policies, etc

Aging and the pyramid structure of organizations

• Fewer positions as you move upward, but many entry level positions

• Baby boomers can experience career plateaus due to the limited positions

• Younger and middle age adults compete for entry positions, and limit movement upwards

Age distribution of labour force

• Teen workers have declined in the labour force

• Those reaching retirement age has increased in the labour force 

• Age of labour force has become older 

  • Due to the prominence of the baby boom generation and other factors

Projected impacts of aging labour force

• Baby boomers have longer life expectancy and are seeking opportunities to remain in the labour force

  • Challenges traditional idea that retirement is an abrupt exit 

Baby boomers are continuing to enter retirement age, raising questions about Canadian social safety nets (ex. OAS, CPP)

• Relative size of working age population supporting these systems are shrinking 

• Younger workers ultimately contributes to this cause more

• Cost of living pushed baby boomers to work even longer 

Immigration and cultural diversity

• Govt tailor immigration policy to suit labour market needs

  • ~23% of Canada is composed of immigrants

• Changing source countries of immigrants

  • China, india, pakistan, phillipines

  • Much smaller proportion of countries from Europe

  • Approximately 19% of recent immigrants in Canada are from India

• Asia (including middle east) responsible for most recent immigrants

  • Increased visible diversity of the workforce 

Indigenous Canadians and diversity

• Indigenous peoples are equally important for the diverse nature of Canada's labour force

  • 5% of population (1.8million)

• Indigenous pop. growing at 2x the rate of non-indigenous population

• Immigrants and indigenous Canadians are younger → will make up a larger proportion of our workforce as older Canadians retire 

Changes in educational attainment

• More women and men with postsecondary credentials 

Lifelong learning and continuing learning

• Continuous formal/informal learning throughout life

• Employer-sponsored workplace training

Employer-sponsored workplace training

• very important, almost more important, than postsecondary credentials. But, the access to this formal employer training is difficult to receive:

• 2016 GSS: About 42% of Canadians had access to formal training at work (paid for by employer)

Issues with underemployment

• 2016 GSS: 18% of Canadian workers felt overqualified for their current job

• a mismatch with the education and skills they have to the requirements of their jobs. People are overqualified or underqualified

• Statistics Canada found that about 18% of university-educated workers were in jobs that required a high school education or less

LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION (LFP)

• proportion of people ages 15+ participating in labour market

labour force formula

labour force =employed + unemployed 

LFP rate

LFP rate = (labour force/population 15⁺) 100

Unemployed

• no job and meets Statistics Canada’s unemployment criteria

• can be classified as unemployed is that if they are available for work, and have been looking for work, but are unable to get said job

Not in labour force

• neither working nor participating in the labour market

Trends in LFP in the past century have increased to 65.4% in 2018

Other 35% possibly: disabled people who can’t work, students focusing on school, retirees (GenX and BB), those in caregiving

Gender differences in LFP:

• Since 1900s: Women’s rising LFP vs. men’s declining LFP 

• In 2018, women’s LFP was 61.3%, while men’s LFP was 69.6% 

  • Since 1900s till now, women’s LFP have been rising while men’s LFP have been decreasing

  • Life expectancy rates have changed over the years

Indigenous vs. Non-Indigenous differences in LFP

• Indigenous peoples have much higher unemployment than non-Indigenous workers (8.4% to 4.8%) 

• those on and off reserves are also considered for their LFP

• Canadians with disabilities are ___ likely to be in the paid labour force than Canadians without disabilities 

• less likely

• barriers to employment (ex. discrimination) 

Older Canadian men vs. older Canadian women 

• In 2018, older men had an LFP of about 62%

• More older men in LFP

Industry

• Major type of economic activity occurring within a workplace

Primary sector

• includes agriculture, mining, forestry, and other resource extraction industries

Secondary sector

• manufacturing and construction 

  • Goods are produced from raw materials supplied by primary sector

Tertiary sector

• Services rather than products are provided 

  • Service: exchange of a commodity that has no tangible form

Industrial shifts

• Growth of service sector 

  • 78.9% of employed Canadians held service-sector job in 2018

• Shifted away from primary to tertiary sectors

Diversity within the service sector

• Upper tier: distributive, business, education, health and welfare, public administration 

• Lower tier: retail trade, consumer services