Labour Markets, Business Activity, and Population Growth and Mobility
in Canadian Census Metropolitan Areas
by Andrew Heisz, Sébastien LaRochelle-Côté, Michael
Bordt, Sudip Das,
Trends and Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas, April 2005, Catalogue
No. 89-613 No. 6
Context
This report is the sixth in a series that develops statistical measures
to shed light on important issues for Canada's cities. Statistics Canada
has worked on this project in collaboration with the Cities Secretariat,
Infrastructure and Communities.
The objective is to provide statistical measures of trends and conditions
in our larger cities and the neighbourhoods within them. These measures
will be available for use in city planning and in policy development.
Objective(s)
This comprehensive report examines employment, unemployment, work activity,
earnings, industrial structure, industry concentration and diversity,
and human capital and population growth due to immigration and inter-CMA
mobility in Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) between 1981 and 2003.
Findings
The gap in labour market strength between Canada's "have"
metropolitan centres and the "have-nots" has narrowed during
the past two decades, but there were still major differences among them.
Between 1981 and 2003, the employment rates and unemployment rates in
most census metropolitan areas converged towards the national average.
This occurred largely because of improvements in urban areas where labour
markets were weakest in 1981, that is, those in which rates of unemployment
were relatively high, and employment rates relatively low.
At the same time, however, the average unemployment rate for all metropolitan
areas combined remained virtually unchanged, as did the average employment
rate.
These changes occurred against a backdrop of transformation in business
activity within these urban areas. The report found that virtually all
metropolitan centres became more services-oriented during the 1990s.
Underlying this shift was a decline in employment in manufacturing combined
with a gain in business services industries. Most metropolitan areas
also increased their specialization in the communications technology
sector, especially in services.
The report also found a kind of "brain drain" had occurred
within these metropolitan areas. Many of the smallest centres lost some
of their youngest, brightest people, that is, the university-educated
population, to larger urban centres.
As a result, smaller metropolitan areas faced a challenge attracting
highly educated immigrants and holding on to their university graduates.
Data source(s)
Data primarily came from the 1981, 1991,
and 2001 censuses of Canada, and the 1987-2003 Labour Force Survey.
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