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Real Wages are Recovering… and That’s Good News!
The beginning of 2024 brought some good labour market news for a change: average real wages in Canada increased in 2023, reversing some of the damage from post-COVID inflation.
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Workers Strike Back
Some observers called 2023 the Year of the Strike, and at times that moniker was fitting. Across a wide range of industries, workers hit the picket lines to support demands for pay increases that kept up with surging inflation. Over the first nine months of 2023 (the latest data at time of writing), Canada lost a total of 2.2 million work days to work stoppages...
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Risks and Uncertainties Facing Canada’s Economy in 2024
Canada’s economy enters the New Year facing a wide range of challenges and uncertainties: high interest rates, stalling economic growth, and rising unemployment. To review the outlook, CBC Radio’s Sunday Magazine, hosted by Piya Chattopadhyay, recently broadcast a full 20-minute interview with Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford.
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Review of Gas Price Roller-Coaster in 2023 Revealed Important Lessons
As 2023 drew to a close, it wa3s instructive to review the path of gasoline prices (which are the most volatile major component in Canada’s consumer price index) over the year. According to the GasBuddy website, the average price on December 31 was $1.39/litre. That was 5₵ cheaper than at the beginning of 2023. But gas prices followed a long, winding road to get there.