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Speculation and Greed Explain the Price of Gasoline, not Supply and Demand
The economic impacts of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran were felt by Canadians within hours of its launch. Prices for gasoline, diesel, and home heating oil (widely used in Atlantic Canada) shot up very quickly. This is both surprising and infuriating—since those products were produced, refined, and delivered long before the war started. Why do consumers have to pay more, given the war had no impact on the cost of production?
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Annotated Bibliography on the Net Employment Benefits of the Energy Transition
Investments in sustainable energy and energy conservation are larger than investments in fossil fuel energy systems. Moreover, the work involved is more labour-intensive than fossil fuel projects (which have very small labour inputs relative to the scale of capital investments or GDP). For both reasons, the shift from fossil fuels to sustainable alternatives will definitely create far more jobs than are lost in fossil fuel industries as the economy transitions to net-zero.
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Symposium on Promising Practices in Scholar-Union Collaboration: Lessons for Building Effective Research Partnerships
Academics and trade unions can do great research together, to the benefit of both sides. This special symposium of articles discusses how to do it right.
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Youth Unemployment: The Canary in the Coal Mine
Unemployment has remained stubbornly high in Canada, made worse by the consequences of Donald Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of high interest rates. As always, young people bear the heaviest burden of a weakening labour market. They are the last hired, and first fired – and hence rising unemployment is a danger sign of labour market turbulence ahead. Last summer had the highest unemployment among returning students since the turn of the century (save the COVID pandemic), and the coming summer job season shows no signs of substantial improvement.
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Your Job is at Risk from Artificial Intelligence… but not for the Reasons You Think
It’s three years since the public launch of ChatGPT, and the rapid roll-out of artificial intelligence apps since then has amplified fears that AI will lead to massive job loss as human workers are replaced by algorithms. For many concrete reasons, this is unlikely. However, the exaggerated financial hype associated with AI investments poses a more imminent threat to employment. In this commentary, originally published in the Toronto Star, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford explains how the stock market’s mania for AI assets is inflating a financial bubble that will inevitably pop, with major consequences for the real economy.
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Webinar on Employment Transitions for Fossil Fuel Workers
The Centre for Future Work recently released a major report, as part of its PowerShare research project, on the role of collective voice and representation in facilitating more effective and fair employment transitions as most production and use of fossil fuels is phased out in line with reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
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How do Banks Make so Much Money, Anyway?
CBC journalist Andrew Chang is known for his unique ability to break down complex topics, for his ‘About That’ program. He has recently posted an outstanding segment on how Canada's big banks make so much money. Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford was one of the experts interviewed for the show.
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Transition Away from Fossil Fuel Jobs is Already Occurring: Here’s How to Manage it Better
A report from the Centre for Future Work presents new research on the ongoing decline of fossil fuel employment in Canada, and strategies for managing that decline more effectively and fairly. The report, Worker Voice and Effective Transitions for Fossil Fuel Workers in Canada (by Jim Stanford and Kathy Bennett), also asks fossil fuel workers what sorts of supports they want as this decline continues, and lays out best practices to avoid unemployment during the transition.
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Federal Budget 2025: Unpacking the New Capital Budgeting Framework
Leading into this budget, the Carney government made much of a new distinction between operational spending and capital spending: between “spending” and “investing”. However, in practice this distinction was mostly optics – and did not reflect any meaningful change in budget accounting and reporting.
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Fighting for Fair Work
For decades, David Fairey has served as an outstanding researcher and advocate on a wide range of labour and trade union issues. He served for 23 years as Director of the former Trade Union Research Bureau, based in Vancouver, B.C., legendary for the high-quality, practical, but inspiring research it performed for a vast range of union and other clients. Later he founded Labour Consulting Services to continue this work – along with numerous voluntary commitments (including founding the B.C. Employment Standards Coalition). David also generously serves as a voluntary Director of the Centre for Future Work.