Data and Collection Methodologies
Food service labour shortages in Canada: exploring average hours worked as an indicator
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the accommodation and food services sector harder than any other. Now, even as the broader economy recovers, the food services sector is facing unique challenges bringing people back to work. There have been many recent media stories suggesting food service labour shortages across Canada. Translating this anecdotal evidence into clear…Read More
Employment Recovery Lags for Low Earners
In August 2020, employment increased by another 246,000 jobs (+1.4%) to bring total employment in the month to nearly 97% of its February level. As noted by Statistics Canada’s data release, low-earning workers suffered larger initial job losses and are now facing a weaker recovery. Much of this is because low-earning workers are concentrated in…Read More
Job Loss Impacts of COVID-19 by Education, Gender and Age
Widespread job losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had an outsized impact on workers with lower levels of education. Since these workers tend to earn less on average, economists are concerned about rising inequality around the world. To see how Canadian workers are being affected, we examine the recent employment impacts by educational attainment,…Read More
COVID-19 Job Losses Concentrated Among the Lowest Earners
Employment fell by a further 1,993,800 (11%) in April, bringing total job losses to more than 3 million over the past two months. The official unemployment rate now stands at 13.0%, up from 7.8% in March. The job losses in March and April both far exceed the previous largest drop in employment recorded in the…Read More
Essential Services and Occupations: A Pan-Canadian List
To ensure the labour market information we share is up to date, we will continue to update our Pan-Canadian Essential Services List as new LMI emerges about the effects of the pandemic on the labour force. Our latest update was on April 28, 2020. Download the updated list here. LMIC has worked to pinpoint the…Read More
Early Signs of the COVID-19 Impact on Canada’s Job Market
Employment fell by 1,010,700 in March in Canada – the largest drop on record –and the unemployment rate jumped to 7.8% from 5.6% in February. So say the first official statistics covering the onset of the COVID-19 crisis (see Figure 1), released today as part of the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Although these early indicators…Read More
Digging Deep Reveals New LMI Findings
We conducted a series of public opinion surveys on ten groups of Canadians to understand their top labour market information (LMI) needs, sources and challenges. We reported key findings through a series of dashboards, LMI Insights and public presentations. But, we also wanted to gain deeper insights, such as whether young people face different LMI…Read More
Canada’s Workforce Is Changing. Is Canada’s Post-Secondary System Keeping Pace?
Across the globe, the workplace is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Technological change, demographic shifts, globalization and climate change are just a few of the factors increasing uncertainty around work today – and tomorrow. In particular, the skills required to succeed in the world of work are changing. In the face of these changes, we…Read More
Gender Earning Difference Across Income Levels: Still a ways to go
LMIC at CRDCN I recently had the opportunity to present LMIC’s work at the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN) national conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At this conference, researchers and government agencies gather to learn about and discuss how micro data available at Statistics Canada’s research data centres (RDCs) can be used to create groundbreaking new…Read More
Going Global with Big Data
Across the world, skills are one of the biggest data gaps in labour market information (LMI). In addition to being difficult to identify and measure, skills are not clearly defined. As we noted in a recent LMI Insight report, these skills data gaps can only be meaningfully filled if skills are linked to existing labour market data such as occupations.…Read More