CIBC World Markets: Employment Quality Declines in Canada

X

Hello there! You are new here, you might want to subscribe to our email Newsletter for our Daily Updates.

A report from CIBC World Markets shows that the quality of employment in Canada has dropped significantly in the last 6 months, with all measures declining.

The report shows us that while the Canadian labour market was in a free fall between October 2008 and March 2009, having shed around 356,600 jobs, was able to remarkably keep the quality of employment managed to remain relatively stable, only falling 0.2%.

However, in the last 6 months, when employment had shown modest gain, the employment quality had actually dropped 3.8% notes Benjamin Tal, senior economist and author of CIBC’s Canadian Employment Quality Index (EQI)

There are more employed, however the quality of employment has nose dived.

Since March 2009, all components that compose the CIBC Canadian Employment Quality Index have worsened. We have seen Part-time employment rise by over 0.2% while full-time employment fell. Self-employment has surged by 3% over the past six months, vs. a 0.5% decline in paid employment.

The most important factor to this decline in the CIBC Canadian Employment Quality Index is that over the past 6 months, any gain in employment was among low paying jobs, while the number of high paying jobs declined by no less than 3%.

Tal finds that although the economy is recovering, the counter productivity of employment quality is working in the opposite direction.

The report continues to note that most of the decline in employment quality was concentrated in western Canada, with British Columbia seeing the largest drop at 8%.

The CIBC Canadian Employment Quality Index (EQI) combines information on the distribution of part-time vs. full-time jobs; self employment vs. paid employment; and the compensation ranking of full-time paid employment jobs in more than 100 industry groups.

Related Posts

• CIBC World Markets: Investors Fears of Economic Slowdown Shown
• CIBC World Markets: Corporate Canada’s Debt Levels will Lessen effect of Rate Hikes
• CIBC World Market: RRSPs Contributions Likely to Increase
• Employment Up for the Sixth Month in a Row
• CIBC World Markets Inc: Ontario Economy Expected Grow Fast