January 2 will be the 20th anniversary of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement’s signing. (Of course, the deal did not come into force until January 1, 1989, after the 1988 federal election.) The leading lobby for this deal was the Business Council on National Issues, which has since been renamed the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE). The promise of […]
Read morehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgNCFsXGUa0 Freeman is the US’s leading liberal/left moderately pro union labour economist – best known for his book What Do Unions Do? and for a sustained critical engagement with the deregulated labour market model. Here’s an hour long interview on You Tube, as progecon goes multi media!
Read moreMy take on today’s Labour Force Survey follows: Unemployment Although November’s 42,600 increase in employment is striking, the 25,100 increase in unemployment deserves as much attention. While the number of workers employed grew by 0.3%, the number unemployed grew by 2.4%. Proportionally, unemployment growth in the last month nearly equals employment growth over the past year (2.7%). The higher unemployment […]
Read moreToday, Premiers McGuinty and Charest kicked off “free trade” negotiations between their provinces. The key question is whether this process will be a sweeping “race to the bottom” like the BC-Alberta Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) or a focused effort to develop common standards in the few areas where problems may exist. As usual, the rhetoric about “inter-provincial […]
Read moreAlthough my knowledge of Australia’s politics is limited, they always interest me. Not only is the country similar to Canada in many ways, but it also had among the most successful labour movements and Labor Parties in the English-speaking world. (The party changed its name from “Labour” to “Labor” in 1912, when it seemed that Australia would adopt American spelling.) […]
Read moreToday’s edition of The Economist magazine includes a good article on temporary foreign workers in Canada. It extensively quotes Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. The present regime allows employers to import workers from abroad without seriously demonstrating the unavailability of Canadian workers for the job. Once the foreign workers are in Canada, it is easy for […]
Read moreTuesday’s Financial Post featured an op-ed by William Robson, President and CEO of the C. D. Howe Institute, arguing that “The expansion of the public sector in an economy with no slack is squeezing the private sector, driving up interest rates and the dollar in the short run, and threatening Canadian prosperity in the long run.” Today’s Financial Post includes […]
Read moreMy take on this morning’s Labour Force Survey follows: Goods-Producing Industries Cut Jobs Canada’s beleaguered manufacturing sector lost a further 3,500 jobs in October. Employment also fell by 1,900 in natural resources, 1,900 in agriculture, and 700 in construction. Saskatchewan Bucks the Western Trend Although more part-time jobs increased total employment, western Canada lost full-time jobs in October. Specifically, British […]
Read moreToday’s Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours doesn’t seem to support the rosy view that our labour market is turning out better jobs and higher wages. Of the 285,000 payroll jobs created over the past year (August 06 to August 07, seasonally adjusted), almost half (46% or 130,000) were in the two lowest-paid broad industrial sectors, retail trade (85,000 net […]
Read morehttp://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/download/elm/elm07-4.pdf  A useful reference; a methodologically sophisticated attack on the core neo liberal belief that labour market regulation undermines efficiency. Why labour market regulation may pay off: Worker motivation, co-ordination and productivity growth by Servaas Storm & C.W.M. Naastepad ILO Economic and Labour Market Paper 2007/4 Abstract The impact of labour market regulation on labour productivity growth is ambiguous: on […]
Read moreDuring the provincial campaign, Dalton McGuinty seems to have changed his tune on TILMA. This change is somewhat reminiscent of the Saskatchewan Party’s “road to Damascus” conversion on the issue. Six months ago, McGuinty praised TILMA and mused about joining it. A couple of weeks ago, he wrote the following in response to a questionnaire from the Ontario Public Service […]
Read moreMy take on Statistics Canada’s release follows: The Dollar Hits Parity During the reference period for this Labour Force Survey, September 15 through 22, the Canadian dollar reached parity with the American dollar. Today’s release does not capture the consequences that have begun to play out since then. A rapidly-rising exchange rate has increased the price of Canadian-made products in […]
Read moreThe Canadian Labour Congress news release follows: Employment statistics: no plan for coming layoffs, Georgetti says OTTAWA – “With so many high profile layoffs announced recently that have yet to come into effect, it is hard to find consolation in the modest employment creation statistics for the last month,” says Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress in regard to […]
Read moreThe Fraser Institute’s latest study of North American labour markets intends to demonstrate that public-sector employment, minimum wages, unionization, and labour laws that facilitate collective bargaining damage labour-market performance. However, its “Index of Labour Market Performance” measures the quantity of jobs with almost no regard for quality. Even this questionable index is not negatively correlated with the policies criticized by […]
Read moreOn Friday, the National Post’s lead editorial suggested that inter-provincial trade barriers are significant enough to validate the Quebec-separatist view that “Canada is not a real country.” The following edited response from yours truly is printed as a “Counterpoint” in today’s edition. UPDATE (August 16): BC’s Minister of Economic Development has responded to my op-ed. In a recent editorial, the […]
Read morePEF Steering Committee member Mathieu Dufour passed along this message: For the French readers amongst you, there is a debate currently going on in Le Devoir about the disconnect between wage and productivity growth. I first wrote an Op-Ed stating said disconnect and asking how long we were going to ask people to increase their productivity without paying them more. […]
Read moreMy take on today’s release follows: Job Numbers As Statistics Canada noted, “Employment was little changed in July.” Employment growth in Alberta and Ontario was largely offset by job losses in the other eight provinces. As a result, the Canadian labour market created 11,300 new positions in July, far fewer than in previous months. Some commentators argue that the Bank of […]
Read moreLast week, while I was out of the country and away from this blog, the Government of Saskatchewan formally rejected TILMA. The news release announcing this decision quite reasonably unveils working groups to address the few inter-provincial problems that may exist, but strangely refrains from outlining any of the strong arguments against TILMA. However, media reports reflect the Minister’s success […]
Read morehttp://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=978399 A new NBER Working Paper from Beadry, Green and Sand of UBC looks interesting.. Spill-Overs from Good Jobs PAUL BEAUDRY University of British Columbia – Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) DAVID A. GREEN University of British Columbia – Department of Economics BENJAMIN SAND University of British Columbia – Department of Economics April 2007 NBER Working […]
Read moreThe Alberta Federation of Labour reports that more people now coming into province as temporary workers than traditional immigrants. From their press release: Alberta has become the first province in Canadian history to bring more people into its jurisdiction under the temporary foreign worker program than through Canada’s mainline immigration system. According to new figures from the federal department of […]
Read moreBenjamin Tal of CIBC produces a quarterly Canadian Employment Quality Index. The releases from today (July 11) and February 11 provide amazingly different spins on amazingly similar figures. The basic facts are virtually unchanged: -Â Most new employment has been self-employment as opposed to jobs paid by an employer. – Most new employment has been full-time as opposed to part-time. – […]
Read moreFurther to my and David Green’s posts on the strange economics of temporary foreign workers .. http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2007/02/08/the-strange-economics-of-temporary-foreign-workers/ http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2007/06/28/the-economics-of-temporary-foreign-workers/Â it is strking to observe that such workers are NOT overwhelmingly concentrated in the Western provinces with well below average unemployment rates. In fact, data presented to an Alberta consultation on the program by the Alberta Federation of Labour show that almost […]
Read moreMy assessment of today’s Labour Force Survey follows: Manufacturing Crisis Deepens • The loss of a further 31,000 manufacturing jobs in June pushed total manufacturing employment losses to 95,000 positions since the beginning of February 2007. Since employment in Canadian manufacturing peaked in November 2002, this sector has lost 308,000 jobs. Construction and Resource Employment Falls • In June, CIBC […]
Read moreIt’s great to have publications like The Western Standard keeping us on our toes. The following excerpt is from an article in today’s edition, “New Economy, Old Prejudices; Big Labour’s jobs campaign flies in the face of employment and wage growth,” that does not (yet) seem to be available online: The CLC contends that Canada’s loss of a quarter-million manufacturing […]
Read moreA dispatch from UBC labour economist, David Green: Wages, Markets and Temporary Workers David A. Green Last November, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced a scheme to speed up the processing of temporary workers for Alberta and British Columbia. The Minister appears to have been concerned with ongoing reports of large numbers of job vacancies going unfilled. […]
Read moreThe CCPA released a study today by PEF steering committee members Ellen Russell and Mathieu Dufour. Rising Profit Shares, Falling Wage Shares is the published version of research they presented during the PEF session on ineuquality, at the CEA conference. The full study is available here and the press release says: Canada’s economy grew steadily and workers’ productivity improved by […]
Read moreRecent commentaries from CIBC and Export Development Canada argue that the manufacturing crisis is not eroding job quality. Both note that a surge in construction employment, added to the relatively few new jobs in non-renewable resource extraction, nearly equals the number of manufacturing jobs lost in recent years. As emphasized on the front page of yesterday’s Financial Post, this argument […]
Read moreThe following excerpt is from the much-reported study released by CIBC last week: The Bank of Canada, eying an economy operating above its non-inflationary speed limit, will welcome the dampening influence of an even stronger currency on both economic growth and inflation. A couple hundred thousand additional factory job losses, while far from derailing domestic economic growth, might be a […]
Read moreThe annual OECD Employment Outlook – the product of the Directorate for Employment. Labour and Social Affairs (DELSA) can usually be relied upon to provide a well-reasoned counter point to the extreme neo liberalism of the Economics Directorate (ECO) — and the 2007 issue is no exception.) For a summary and details on how to access the report (full document […]
Read moreJust in from Paris, some fascinating quotables from the OECD: Governments must do more to help workers adapt to new global economy, says OECD Rather than seeing globalisation as a threat, OECD governments should focus on improving labour regulations and social protection systems to help people adapt to changing job markets. That is the message from the 2007 edition of […]
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