Recent trends in Canada's labour market: A rising tide or a passing wave?
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Released: 2018-08-31
The article "Recent trend in Canada's labour market: A rising tide or a passing wave?" released today in the Labour Statistics at a Glance series, uses data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours, and the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (JVWS) to analyse how the labour market fared over the first six months of 2018. In addition, the analysis highlights noteworthy labour market outcomes by a number of characteristics, including geographic region, educational attainment, job permanency and demographics.
The first half of 2018 follows a six-month period that saw the largest employment gains since 2010. Furthermore, in September 2017, year-over-over growth in average weekly earnings exceeded 2.0% for the first time since 2015.
Although earnings continued to grow steadily in the first half of 2018, employment was little changed at the national level over this period.
The article also analyses labour market outcomes based on 12-month averages ending in June 2018. This analysis reveals that the proportion of people unemployed for a year or more remained above pre-recession levels, and that year-over-year growth in temporary work continued to outpace growth in permanent employment.
In addition, structural differences in the age composition and immigrant status of provincial and regional populations remained. The proportion of landed immigrants in the working-age population ranged from 31.5% in Ontario to 2.4% in Newfoundland and Labrador, and individuals aged 55 to 64 tended to be less active in the labour market in economic regions where their proportion of the population was higher.
Finally, data from the JVWS and the LFS based on the average of the four quarters ending in March 2018 suggest that unemployed individuals with a bachelor's degree or higher may have found it more difficult to find work if they looked for a job that matched their skill level.
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The article "Recent trend in Canada's labour market: A rising tide or a passing wave?" is now available online in the Labour Statistics at a Glance series (71-222-X).
Contact information
For more information, contact us (toll-free: 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca).
To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Vincent Hardy (613-290-3707; vincent.hardy@canada.ca) or Client Services (toll-free: 1-866-873-8788; statcan.labour-travail.statcan@canada.ca), Labour Statistics Division.
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