Study: A 30-year look at the work histories of Canadian workers

Released: 2021-12-09

The work histories of Canadian workers provide useful information about the employment and earnings trajectories that diverse groups of people experience during their career, about the transitions they go through during their career, and about key events (e.g. job loss, injury, illness, parental leave, promotions) that affect their well-being and future employment prospects. Because analyses of long-term work histories require data that precisely tracks the labour market outcomes of workers over several years of their career, such analyses have rarely been conducted in Canada.

A new study released today, "Can Canadians' Work Histories Be Deduced from Administrative Data? A Feasibility Study," fills this information gap and examines the work histories of Canadian workers over a 30-year period. It shows that Canadians who had some paid employment during the 30 years had, on average, about 7 different employers. The average number of employers for men (7.7) was slightly higher than that for women (6.9).

The study integrates Statistics Canada's Longitudinal Worker File with the 1991 Census of Population and documents, for the first time, the work histories of Canadian workers during 30 years of their career (i.e., from 1989 to 2018). The workers selected for the analysis were aged 23 to 27 in 1989 and therefore were generally at the beginning of their career.

The study shows that less educated workers fared worse than their highly educated counterparts on all of the labour market indicators considered in the study. For example, women with no high school diploma had paid employment for an average of 19.8 years, compared with 25.4 years for women with a bachelor's degree or higher education.

When they were employed, less educated workers faced greater employment instability and therefore had a greater number of employers than highly educated workers. Men with no high school diploma and some paid employment from 1989 to 2018 had, on average, 9.1 employers over that period. In contrast, men with a bachelor's degree or higher education averaged 6.0 employers during that period. Women with no high school diploma also had, on average, a higher number of employers (7.9) than those with a bachelor's degree or higher education (5.7).

The difference between the two groups is due in part to differences in job security. For example, 49.6% of men who had no high school diploma, worked at least 20 years and did so outside of construction—a sector in which layoff rates are substantially higher than in the rest of the economy—were never permanently laid-off from 1989 to 2018. This proportion is lower than the rate of 63.1% observed for their counterparts who had a bachelor's degree or higher education.

Because they worked fewer years and had lower pay rates when they were employed, less educated workers ended up earning substantially less than their highly educated counterparts during this 30-year period. While men with no high school diploma had—including years with no paid employment—average cumulative wages and salaries of about $1.1 million (in 2018 dollars) from 1989 to 2018, men with a bachelor's degree or higher education amassed $2.3 million during that period. The corresponding numbers amount to about $560,000 for women with no high school diploma and $1.7 million for women with a bachelor's degree or higher education.

Products

The study "Can Canadians' Work Histories Be Deduced from Administrative Data? A Feasibility Study," part of the Analytical Studies: Methods and Reference Series (Catalogue number11-633-X), is now available.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).