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Corporate Power and Post-Pandemic Inflation: A Deeper Dive
There is abundant research (including from the Centre for Future Work, here here and here) showing that corporate profit margins have expanded significantly in the course of the current acceleration of inflation. It is not solely a process of companies passing along higher input and labour costs to consumers through higher prices. Rather, corporations have used their market power and disruptions in normal supply channels to widen their profit margins. In Canada, after-tax corporate profits have increased to their highest share of GDP ever, coincident with the sharp rise in consumer prices. Since it’s corporations who literally set those prices, perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising. Labour costs, meanwhile, have lagged…
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Canadian Workers Need More Technology, Not Less
There is little evidence that robots and other advanced technologies are displacing workers and causing technological unemployment in Canada. To the contrary, Canada’s adoption of new technology has surprisingly slowed down in recent years. That is the conclusion of a major new report on innovation and automation in Canada’s economy, from the Centre for Future Work. The report, titled Where are the Robots?, reviews nine empirical indicators of Canadian innovation, technology adoption, and robotization. They paint a worrisome picture that Canadian businesses have dramatically reduced their innovation effort since the turn of the century, and are lagging well behind other industrial countries in putting new technology to work in the…
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Getting Real About Recruitment and Retention in a “Labour Shortage”
Employers complain they can’t find and keep the right people to run their businesses, in this era of supposed labour “shortage”. Have they tried treating them better … starting with paying more? Not always. Sometimes the simplest answers are the last ones considered. While employers wax eloquent about trying to build a better “culture” in their workplaces, and tap into workers’ desire to “do good” in the world, they shouldn’t forget the imperative that workers have to pay their bills, put a roof over their heads, and (hopefully) prepare for retirement. Improving pay and benefits are the first things employers should do, if they are genuine about addressing their recruitment…
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Canada’s Growing Jobs Advantage Over the U.S.
In September, Canada’s labour market reached a milestone: the total number of people employed finally regained (and slightly surpassed) the level when COVID hit back in February 2020. While this isn’t a full recovery, it is evidence of an encouraging rebound in work, participation, and incomes. In this commentary, originally published in the Toronto Star, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford compares Canada’s employment rebound to the less impressive recovery south of the border. Far from inhibiting the rebound in employment (by ‘encouraging’ workers to stay at home instead of getting back to work), Canada’s more comprehensive income support measures have contributed to a stronger economic recovery. Canada’s job…
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Learning from Minimum Wage History
This week Ontario increased its provincial minimum wage by a whole dime: from $14.25 per hour to $14.35. Don’t spend it all in one place, oh ye minimum wage workers. That 0.7% wage increase, saved up for a whole week for a full-time employee, will get you a small latte at Starbucks. Or, for those with humbler tastes, two whole double-doubles at Timmie’s. Many commentators argued that such a stingy wage increase was offensive to the ‘essential’ workers whose humble but determined (and often dangerous) work is getting us through the pandemic: grocery store cashiers, building cleaners, fast food chefs, and delivery drivers. We learned that what they do is…
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Employer Complaints of ‘Labour Shortage’ Lead to Attacks on Income Security
Employer organizations are stepping up complaints about a purported ‘labour shortage’ that they say is holding back Canada’s employment recovery. These complaints are typically accompanied by demands that government push more workers into the labour market – by cutting back income support programs (like Employment Insurance and the CRB), and increasing inflow of temporary foreign workers (hired in insecure roles with limited protections and low wages). In this commentary (originally published in the Toronto Star), Centre for Future Work Director disputes whether a labour shortage truly exists (given persistent high unemployment), and argues that improving wages and working conditions are better strategies for recruiting and retaining workers. Hard Data Does…
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Is There Really a Shortage of Labour?
With restaurants and stores opening up again after the pandemic, loud complaints are emerging from employers in the hospitality and retail sectors that they can’t find enough workers. Many point the finger at government income supports which supported people through the pandemic (including the former CERB, cancelled last September, and subsequent improvements in EI benefits). Many also want the federal government to open the taps on Temporary Foreign Workers, to bring in more low-cost labour from other countries. However, the hard economic evidence does not support this complaint about a supposed ‘labour shortage.’ Yes, it is certainly an operational challenge for restaurants and stores to reconnect with former employees after…
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Second Wave of COVID Job Losses Just as Unfair as the First
Commentary on January 2021 employment data by Jim Stanford: With most of Canada fighting a bigger, deadlier second wave of COVID infection, labour markets in most provinces are suffering the consequences. Employment began to shrink in December. But jobs data for January released by Statistics Canada confirm that the economy is sliding into a second dip, to match the second wave of the pandemic. Both the scale of job loss, and their painfully unfair distribution, are heartbreaking. And the new numbers reinforce findings from our first PowerShare report: 10 Ways the COVID Pandemic Must Change Work for Good. The worst impacts are being felt by workers in lower wage, insecure…
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Video Presentation on Building Better Jobs After COVID
Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford recently participated in the Cannexus21 conference, hosted by CERIC (a non-profit organization that promotes career counselling and career development in Canada). His topic was how to create better jobs, and a stronger labour market, after the COVID pandemic and its catastrophic impacts on workers – especially workers in low-wage, insecure jobs. The presentation updates material from our earlier paper, 10 Ways the COVID Pandemic Must Change Work for Good, published through our PowerShare project. Here is a link to his 30-minute presentation, followed by a few questions from the audience. https://youtu.be/hb_Sa51OSic We are grateful to CEIC and Cannexus for the opportunity to participate…
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Transition Plan for Workers can Prevent Unemployment as Fossil Fuels are Phased Out
New research from the Centre for Future Work demonstrates that with prudent long-term planning, the coming phase-out of fossil fuel production and use can be managed without causing unemployment for fossil fuel workers. Employment Transitions and the Phase-Out of Fossil Fuels, by Jim Stanford (Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work) shows that fossil fuel industries directly account for 170,000 jobs in Canada – less than 1% of total employment. A 20-year phase-out of fossil fuels implies an annual reduction of fossil fuel employment of around 8,500 jobs annually: the number of jobs typically created by the Canadian economy every ten days. With a clear timetable for phase-out,…