The way of the future: How LMIC is approaching AI’s impact on LMI and the future of work
Author
Ken Chatoor, Director of Research and Strategic Foresight at Labour Market Information Council
A pivotal moment for the labour market—and the data we use to make sense of it
The looming presence of artificial intelligence continues to grow in the lives, concerns and imaginations of Canadians. This is especially true for Canadian workers, many of whom express growing uncertainty about their jobs when they think about the future. As if living in a time where everything is happening everywhere all at once were not enough, the information we use to understand the world is also rapidly evolving. The synergy of these events has blurred the lines of reality and created a diminishing sense of trust in the information we use to make sense of the world. There is a need to ground and hold the center of the challenges ahead.
At LMIC, we view AI’s impact as omnidirectional: the labour market is changing due to the automation of skills, the emergence of new skills, and shifting values among workers and employers. The way we collect, process, analyze, interpret and report information on the labour market has also transformed. Finally, there is the question of whether we are collecting and looking at the right information for this moment—and the unknown unknowns of AI’s impact that lie ahead. While much of the collective discourse on AI’s impact on the labour market has been grounded in traditional macroeconomic metrics, there is also a need to measure and track the human-centred, tangible impacts of AI on Canadian workers.
The Institute for Work and Health's Partnership on AI and Quality of Work (PAIQ)
The Institute for Work and Health operate at the intersection of the labour market, health and epidemiology. Their centring of health in the context of work inherently puts the lived experiences and well-being of workers at the center of labour market research. At a time when work is constantly and radically evolving, the measurable impact on worker health and well-being is arguably as essential a form of LMI as traditional information like income and employment status.
This is why the Institute for Work and Health—with the support of multidisciplinary, pan-Canadian, and multinational organizations, including LMIC—pursued a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to understand how AI will affect workers' quality of life in Canada.
But why the need for this work, and why now? As IWH puts it:
“… we have limited understanding of how AI will affect working conditions and worker experiences—whether for better or for worse. We also lack information on the worker groups that may be most advantaged or disadvantaged by AI.”
This initiative identifies a glaring and consequential gap in LMI that needs to be addressed. What’s exciting about this initiative from LMIC’s perspective is that, in addition to elucidating the health and policy implications of AI on workers, it will also directly and indirectly lead to the generation and creative exploration of LMI on this subject. This LMI is needed to ensure policies and strategies are effectively and equitably designed to support Canadian workers as the world of work adapts to automation and AI.
This seven-year funded research project aims to do this through a few objectives.
Objectives of the study
- Monitor and synthesize evidence on how AI advancement, adoption, and use impact job quality and worker health, safety, and well-being
- Estimate the extent to which Canadian workers are exposed to AI, and determine how AI exposure relates to job quality and worker health, safety and well-being
- Directly observe the effect of AI on workers, including how AI may impact job task performance, perceptions of work, and well-being
- Identify and explain how worker and work context characteristics may play a role in the advantage or disadvantage of AI
How LMIC is looking to the future
Earlier, I described AI’s impact on the labour market as “omnidirectional”—that is to say, there’s no direction or perspective where we can look at the labour market without seeing AI’s impact either directly or indirectly. PAIQ will elucidate one vantage point of AI’s impact on the labour market. Our team at LMIC is also examining the impact of AI on the labour market from other vantage points. We are approaching this through demonstration, creating actionable, accessible guidance, and sharing best practices. But what does that actually look like?
First, we spoke with private-sector data providers who produce and provide Online Job Posting (OJP) data, increasingly used across Canada. This work will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how data providers create OJP as part of our efforts to build understanding and trust for new sources of LMI. One of the most valuable outcomes of this work was the best practices and lessons learned from those who work intimately with AI for data creation.
Secondly, our team is working on developing a practical, accessible guide to the consortium of tools we call “AI” to empower Canadians to better understand and use them more effectively. This is necessary as AI becomes more ubiquitous and involved in our lives—yet feels less defined and out of our control. This guide will help to demystify the ins and outs of AI in practice. In order for AI to be truly equitable and accessible, everyone has a right to understand what it is and how to use it beyond just a prompt in ChatGPT.
And finally, watch the recap of LMIC's free webinar, Through the Looking Glass: Making Sense of the AI LMI Wonderland, where we break down how AI is currently used in labour market information, its strengths and limitations, and practical guidance for interpreting and using different types of LMI appropriately.
Final thoughts
We’re scaffolding AI and it’s impacts into our work in many ways—from experimenting with using language models to map qualitative information, to monitoring AI’s impact on youth employment, and sharing best practices from experts like Statistics Canada.
We know how nebulous the impact of AI can feel for Canadians, so we’re hopeful that these efforts will foster a sense of tangible, approachable impact. The collective goal of LMIC’s work, as well as other sector partners, is based on the hope that this knowledge will empower Canadians to take ownership and regain a sense of autonomy over a suite of technologies that, at the end of the day, are just tools to be used by us—and not the other way around.