Permanent layoffs,
quits and hirings in the Canadian economy, 1978-1995
The labour market in Canada is characterized
by a large volume of turnover and worker reallocation among firms every year.
This movement is both firm-initiated, via layoffs and hirings, and worker-initiated,
via quits. These hirings and separations are due to a wide range of factors, from
cyclical fluctuations in demand to structural changes, such as those arising from
changes in domestic demand or trading patterns, and the competitive process within
industries which causes some firms to grow and others to decline.
This
publication on worker turnover provides comprehensive data on quit and layoff
rates, and hirings in the Canadian economy.
Some of the findings include:
- At any point in time about one in five workers permanently separate
from their employer, having lost or left their job, and a similar number are hired.
This is employment turnover of a tremendous scale.
- While permanent separation
rates vary over the business cycle, there are a large number of layoffs over all
phases of a cycle. There
are over one million layoffs during both expansionary
and recessionary years. - Turnover occurs more frequently in small than in large
firms.
- Quits and layoffs vary considerably by industry.
View
the article in the Daily about this publication.
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