Over at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Stephen Gordon has assembled an interesting comparison of the current expansion vis-a-vis the previous two (roughly, the 1980s and the 1990s), benchmarking performance on a number of key indicators. One of his conclusions is rather unusual: he finds strong real wage growth over the past four years. This is contrary to the numbers I have […]
Read moreWhat follows is a revised and extended version of the comments I made at a panel on the Canadian economy organized by the Bank of Canada and the IMF at the recent Canadian Economics Association meetings. An Update on Canada’s Two Economies – Implications for Workers and for Monetary Policy Andrew Jackson Chief Economist Canadian Labour Congress The Hidden Jobs […]
Read moreToday’s labour force survey shows an alarming deterioration in job quality and gives the lie to the idea that Canada has a very tight job market just because we have a low unemployment rate. In May, we lost 58,000 paid jobs in the private sector, offset by a big jump in self-employment (up by 56,000.) Fully two-thirds (69%) of the […]
Read moreA couple of hours ago, Industry Canada put out the following press release. In forecasting this release last night, Canadian Press again repeated the Conference Board’s thoroughly discredited estimates of TILMA’s benefits. As far as I know, the proposed April 2009 deadline for “full labour mobility” is the deadline toward which provincial governments were already working with the regulated professions […]
Read moreOn Tuesday, I testified before the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on the Economy, which is holding public hearings on joining TILMA. The Legislative Assembly is broadcasting the hearings and promptly posting the recordings. To see my presentation, click “Video 1” for June 5 and use the bar immediately below the screen to advance the time to 48.5 minutes. A […]
Read moreThe following op-ed, which is printed in today’s Vancouver Sun, picks up some key themes from this blog:   Subsidizing the transfer of jobs abroad Vancouver Sun Monday, June 4, 2007 Page: A7 Section: Editorial Byline: Erin Weir Source: Special to the Sun At a time when Kitimat and many other Canadian communities are losing manufacturing jobs, why would […]
Read moreA study released by Statistics Canada today concludes that “Immigration has tended to lower wages in both Canada and the United States.” Of course, immigration is but one of many influences on wages and class divisions are of far greater economic significance than any supposed conflict between immigrant and non-immigrant workers. Nevertheless, this issue has the potential to be quite […]
Read moreHaving just finished arguing that inequality is an inevitable result of personal marriage decisions, William Watson has declared Canadians the “strike champs” of the OECD in today’s Financial Post. A new British study suggests that labour disputes cost about 200 days per 1,000 workers per year in Canada, which is apparently far more than in most OECD countries. Four thoughts […]
Read moreI spent the better part of this morning sifting through the latest release of Statcan’s Employment, Earnings and Hours release to get a bit of a fix on what’s happening to all of those displaced manufacturing workers. We in the labour movement tend to see a big shift from reasonably good manufacturing jobs to bad private service jobs – which […]
Read moreAlbertans are being paid less per hour, on average, than they were a year ago. It seems that the resource boom has increased prices more than wages in that province. Relative to inflation, wages also fell slightly in Ontario. Today, Statistics Canada released April’s Consumer Price Index. Although inflation is down slightly and wages were up in the last Labour […]
Read moreWhen the Canadian Labour Congress comments on the Labour Force Survey, the interests we represent and the policy agenda we hope to advance is quite explicit. When banks comment, they are generally treated as neutral observers. However, banks are powerful economic actors with major economic interests. In April, full-time, paid jobs disappeared, unemployment rose and people withdrew from the labour […]
Read moreI just appeared on CJOB radio in Winnipeg. Richard Cloutier asked me about the national manufacturing crisis, but not much about Manitoba in particular. I was, of course, delighted to speak about one of the CLC’s main concerns. However, in looking at Manitoba’s numbers before the interview, I noticed that this province is bucking the national trend in an important […]
Read moreToday’s Labour Force Survey indicates that Canada lost 28,000 paid positions in April and that more people are unemployed. But Statistics Canada’s release began as follows: Estimates from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) showed little overall change in employment in April. This follows strong employment gains since September 2006. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate remained at an historic 33-year low […]
Read moreThe following, from today’s Toronto Star, includes some commentary from yours truly: The China syndrome: A new condition characterized by the apparent reluctance of a certain national government to embrace an emerging, global economic power May 05, 2007
Read moreAs noted in December using 2002 figures, Saskatchewan imports more from its prospective TILMA partners than it exports to them. The 2003 figures are now available: Saskatchewan’s trade deficit with Alberta was $2.1 billion and its trade deficit with BC was $0.4 billion. Since there are currently no significant barriers to inter-provincial trade, signing TILMA would not significantly increase inter-provincial trade […]
Read moreFor more on the themes highlighted below by Jim, my note on trade balances and jobs is now available through the CCPA.
Read moreFrom today’s FP – I’ve dropped the misleading headline – this is a much more reasoned piece than some recently and widely circulated short quotes from Buzz on the implications of Kyoto for workers. Friday, April 20, 2007 Â As the president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, I often find myself taking controversial positions, usually with a strong opinion […]
Read moreI’ve pasted below an excellent column from the Toronto Star by Carol Goar. The CLC’s analysis of the issue and policy prescriptions are avaialable from: http://www.canadianlabour.ca/index.php/Salimah_Valiani/1117 As I’ve noted earlier, its pretty hard to square the “shortage of Canadian workers” story from employers with the avaialable data on (flat) wage growth. There are clearly some shortages of specific skills (eg […]
Read morehttp://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1122&Itemid=77 This is a very nice piece from Dean Baker of the CEPR on the delinking of real worker pay from labour productivity growth in the US. I’ve argued for years, with much of the left, that average worker pay has lagged productivity growth mainly because of the increased bargaining power of capital vis a vis labour due to “globalization”, […]
Read moreBill C-30 – the Clean Air Act – is a strange beast – a government bill which was fundamentally re-written by the three opposition parties to finally move Canada towards a real national action plan to prevent catastrophic climate change.The media are so focused on the politics of climate change that little attention seems to have been paid to the […]
Read moreNeil Reynolds has discovered that a fraction can be increased by reducing its denominator. Because labour productivity equals output divided by employment, he claims that “In manufacturing, you measure success by the number of jobs you eliminate.” By definition, a given volume of manufacturing output produced by fewer workers implies higher manufacturing productivity. However, it does not follow that lost […]
Read moreOn March 30, I attended the federal government’s conference on “Internal Trade: Opportunities and Challenges,†which was hosted by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and by Industry Canada. Other attendees included academics, federal and provincial civil servants, and representatives of business and professional organizations. The academic and policy people all agreed that the material costs of alleged inter-provincial barriers […]
Read moreToday’s job numbers are good news in that they strongly suggest the economy is growing rather than slowing. Employment is up by a strong 55,000 jobs, the national unemployment rate remains at a relatively low 6.1%, and real wages are modestly rising. The overall jobs picture is a bit stronger than expected, and women are doing particularly well. (A record […]
Read more This paper from Beaudry and Green seems highly relevant to the currently hot issue of community economic impacts from manufacturing job losses. Manufacturing jobs generally pay above average wages, and recent research suggests displaced industrial workers experience average wage losses in the range of 25%. http://papers.nber.org/papers/W13006  NBER Working Paper No. 13006 Issued in April 2007 NBER Program(s):   LS Does […]
Read moreThe presentations from the Ottawa Economics Association’s 2007 Policy Conference are now available online. They include a fascinating exposition on China’s manufacturing sector, a business perspective on Canadian manufacturing, Buzz Hargrove on the Canadian economy, and the Fraser Institute’s take on global warming.
Read moreThe following note, including tables, is available on the Canadian Labour Congress website: Free trade was promoted to Canadians on the famous promise of “jobs, jobs, and more jobs†and is widely defended on the basis that Canada’s large trade surplus with the US contributes to Canadian employment. Meanwhile, American commentators are concerned that the US trade deficit displaces American […]
Read moreKen Georgetti and leaders of major manufacturing unions just finished meeting with the Prime Minister about Canada’s ongoing manufacturing crisis. The Canadian Labour Congress briefing note quoted by The Globe and Mail online follows: The Manufacturing Crisis Overview Canada’s manufacturing sector is in crisis. High energy prices, a high dollar, and worsening trade deficits with Asia have caused many Canadian […]
Read moreThe expert panel on older workers appointed by the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development has released a short discussion paper. http://www.ow-ta-sec.org/en/consultation/discussion_paper.shtml The background to this panel (promised in the 2006 Budget) was a political push in 2005 for an income support program for displaced older workers – a particularly hot topic in Quebec and, increasingly, in Ontario given […]
Read moreAs advertised on page B7 of today’s Globe and Mail, Hill & Knowlton has promoted Don Boudria from “part-time” Senior Associate to “full-time” Senior Counsellor. Boudria, the former Liberal Whip and House Leader, chaired Dion’s leadership campaign. He attended all of the parliamentary-committee hearings on C-257 to oppose the Bill. In recent days, he visited Liberal MPs who had voted […]
Read moreLast night, the House of Commons defeated Bill C-257, “An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (replacement workers),” by a vote of 177 to 122. All NDP and Bloc MPs, about forty Liberals, and one brave Conservative voted in favour. Although the Bill did not pass, the labour movement’s efforts on this issue have achieved at least three important […]
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