Public Sector Employment Balloons Compared to Private Sector
Between 2019 and 2023, Canada’s public sector employment grew at more than twice the rate of the private sector, increasing by 13 percent compared to just 5.9 percent. This shift added around half a million public sector jobs, with public administration as the largest contributor, raising the public sector’s share of total employment from 19.7 […] Christopher Worswick – High-Skill Migrants Should be Our Goal
From: Christopher Worswick To: Immigration observers Date: November 4, 2024 Re: High-Skill Migrants Should be Our Goal Late last month, Ottawa introduced major reductions in permanent-resident numbers and published population targets for temporary migrants for the first time. This policy pivot is a sensible response to the evolving immigration and macroeconomic situation in Canada. Given the dramatic increases […] Graph of the Week: Rising Unemployment Challenges Newcomers in a Changing Canadian Economy
During the 2010s, the unemployment rate gap between newcomers and Canadian-born individuals narrowed, largely due to changes in immigration policies, such as the introduction of the Express Entry system. This trend continued in 2021 and 2022 as labour market conditions tightened. However, newcomers and non-permanent residents are now experiencing a sharp rise in unemployment, bearing […] Brian Lewis – Doug Ford’s inaction has left Ontario’s most vulnerable without a fighting chance
Published in the Toronto Star
October 1 could have been a celebratory day for Ontarians concerned with the struggles of low-income residents. After all, it’s the day the minimum wage will nudge up – following behind inflation, sure – but up nonetheless. But if you’re living on Ontario Works, or what used to be called welfare, the date will carry a more bitter significance. It will have been a full six years since any increase in the amounts for basic needs and shelter.
In that time, inflation has worked its ugly powers and the price of everything has gone up. There has been a 20-per-cent hike in the cost of living for the typical Ontario family, hitting the basics like food and housing especially hard.
If you happen to…
Settling into a New Normal? Working from Home across Canada
At the end of 2023, 26 percent of paid employees across Canada spent at least part of their week working from home, down from 42 percent in the spring of 2020.1 There are substantial differences across Canada in work-from-home arrangements. Regional differences largely reflect the feasibility and desirability of working from home. Important factors, such […] Graph of the Week: Core Inflation Components Fall Below 3% – A Sign of Broad Softening
Graph of the Week is a new series from the C.D. Howe Institute’s Graphic Intelligence that presents valuable and easily digestible data. Each Monday we unveil one new captivating chart or graph with interesting insights, explaining it in two-to-three sentences. Dive into the data with us.Headline inflation came in right at the 2 percent target […] Daniel Schwanen – Ordering the rail workers back was the right thing to do
Published in The Globe and Mail
Millions of Canadians and hundreds of thousands of businesses were relieved to hear that on Saturday, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) had ordered the country’s two major national railways, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City, to resume services, and for their workers to return to their jobs. At the same time, it sent their contract disputes to binding arbitration.
This decision, taken at the behest of Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon, came after lockouts by the two companies last week, and strikes called by members of the Teamsters union.
The CIRB had ruled earlier this month that the rail transport of commodities is not an essential service – not resulting in…
Graph of the Week: Tracking The Gap – Unemployment and Job Vacancies in Canada
Introducing Graph of the Week, a new series from the C.D. Howe Institute’s Graphic Intelligence that presents valuable and easily digestible data. Each Monday we will unveil one new captivating chart or graph with interesting insights, explaining it in two-to-three sentences. Dive into the data with us.The gap between the number of unemployed and job vacancies in Canada […] Don Wright – Don’t forget basic math when ‘creating jobs’
Published in the Financial Post
Governments often talk about “creating jobs,” but what they really do is choose some jobs at the expense of others. With their myriad spending, taxing and regulatory decisions, all governments try to direct job growth to different sectors — public or private, services or goods, resources or non-resources, and so on.
We all hope governments choose wisely. It would help if they started paying more explicit attention to one factor: the impact of their decisions on Canadians’ standard of living.
A country’s standard of living is largely determined by the wages and net government revenue its tradeable goods and services sector can pay while remaining competitive against international…
Anna Stokke – Reversing the decline in Canadian math scores
To: Canadian Ministers of EducationFrom: Anna StokkeDate: August 20, 2024Re: Reversing the decline in Canadian math scores Math scores on international exams administered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development declined in all provinces between 2003 and 2022. In almost all provinces, the proportion of students performing at the lowest levels has increased since 2003 and has more than […] Tingting Zhang – Unlocking Potential: How to Speed Internationally Educated Nurse Certification
To: Healthcare observers From: Tingting ZhangDate: August 19, 2024Re: Unlocking Potential: How to Speed Internationally Educated Nurse Certification Canada desperately needs more nurses, and governments have relaxed their immigration policies to admit more of them. But provincial licensing bodies are often slow to recognize credentials for many internationally educated nurses, and their burdensome and lengthy qualification and licencing processes are […] Eichenbaum, Alexopoulos, Kronick – Economists must convince the public that productivity isn’t just a number
Published in The Globe and Mail.
Since 1985, U.S. labour productivity has grown by roughly 100 per cent. In sharp contrast, labour productivity in Canada grew by only 40 per cent. Canadian workers are now only 70 per cent as productive as U.S. workers. And we’re not just falling behind the U.S. – the growth rate of our productivity is well below that of the U.K., Germany and France.
Economists have long been aware of our productivity malaise, but we need a broader audience. Public support can help solve the problem, and this requires showing Canadians how productivity gains improve their lives.
To see the benefits of higher productivity, consider the following example: Suppose a firm with 100 workers produces 100…