Measuring Labour Markets In Canada And The United States

This paper measures different aspects of labor market change that the Canadian economy has absorbed since 1970 by examining three separate measures of change and relating them to one another. The first set of measures examines the extent of employment shifts between industries, the second consists of job-change measures that capture the extent of employment growth and decline as a result of changes in producer employment levels, and the third set examines the size of and reasons for worker separations. The paper begins with a review of recent studies on inter- and intra-industry change and then quantifies some of the pressures placed on the Canadian labor force by change, in a way that overcomes the deficiencies in the reviewed literature. It then presents and discusses the results of the measurements of labor market change in the Canadian manufacturing sector.

An Introduction to the Canadian Labour Market is designed for prospective human resource professionals. The text avoids the highly sophisticated statistical techniques that have come to characterize the field over the last two decades. Concepts are presented in non-technical language without relying on mathematical equations. Four goals define the book’s practical approach: 1) to inform the reader about major trends and developments in the Canadian labour market; 2) provide explanation for these real-world developments and labour market outcomes; 3) show why economists sometimes disagree; and 4) teach the reader to apply labour market theory to analyses of current events and labour policy issues.

This report uses data from the 1998 Adult Education & Training Survey to estimate the impact of participating in adult education & training on the employment & earnings of Canadians. The authors apply methods that assume selection on observables, including both standard regression-based methods and propensity score matching methods. They also apply methods based on instruments or exclusion restrictions, including standard instrumental variables estimation and the Heckman bivariate normal selection estimator. The ability of these methods to produce plausible estimates of the impact of adult education & training is discussed. Based on the results of this analysis, the authors suggest improvements to the Survey that would make it a better tool for estimating the labour market impacts of adult education & training.