Future of work
A curated resource of recent research on trends shaping Canada's labour market.
This paper examines the implications of a slowing population growth and an ageing workforce for Canada’s labour market. In the next decade, the annual labour force growth rate is estimated to decrease from 1.6% to 0.8%, while the proportion of workers over 55 years of age is expected to increase. Future projections of labour demand suggest a total of 4.4 million job vacancies due to retirements, deaths, and emigrations alone, compared to the 700,000 vacancies from expansion growth. One tool for meeting this predicted demand is through the use of immigrant workers. Currently, landed and non-landed immigrants, such as temporary foreign workers, comprise 22.9% of the total Canadian labour force. Although this figure is expected to increase in the next decade, the gains from Canadian-born workers still outweigh the gains from immigrant labour and is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future.