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Child Care Expansion Would Boost Economic Recovery, Study Finds
Implementing a new national child care system would generate several important benefits for Canada’s economy as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, according to new research from the Centre for Future Work. A universal national early learning and child care (ELCC) program would create over 200,000 direct jobs in child care centres, 80,000 more jobs in industries which support and supply the ELCC sector, and facilitate increased labour force participation and employment by up to 725,000 Canadian women in prime parenting years. The report, prepared by economist Dr. Jim Stanford (Director of the Centre for Future Work), also projects large increases in Canadian GDP as a result of…
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The Economy After COVID: What Comes Next?
Some day the COVID-19 pandemic will end – hopefully soon! But we will then be left with an enormous economic challenge: building back jobs and incomes after the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. How can we do that? TVO’s flagship program The Agenda, hosted by Steve Paiken, recently convened a panel of economic experts to consider that question – including Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work. Stanford emphasized the need for sustained attention to job-creation, warning it would take years to regain normal employment levels. He also highlighted that any premature focus on reducing deficits and cutting back government spending would prolong the recession, and only…
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Rebuilding Canada’s Economy Must Start with Rebuilding Work
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis have shone an unforgiving spotlight on several long-standing fractures in Canada’s labour market. Repairing those structural weaknesses is an essential precondition for re-opening the economy — and keeping it open — once the immediate health emergency passes and we start heading back to work. Failing to address those challenges will amplify the consequences of this crisis for millions of Canadians, as well as our overall social and economic stability. And it will leave us more vulnerable to the next pandemic, or comparable shock of some other sort. Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford was invited to participate in a new project, Rebuild…
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Encouraging Job Numbers, but a Long Way to Recovery
Here is analysis from Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford on today’s Statistics Canada Labour Force report: The headline growth in jobs (almost 1 million) was very encouraging, much better than expected. By that measure, we’ve climbed almost halfway back out of the hole we fell into from February through April. But the next steps of job recovery will be much harder to achieve. The share of remaining unemployed Canadians expecting to go back to their former jobs has fallen substantially (just one-third now). We are experiencing a wave of second-order layoffs as companies permanently downsize because their market isn’t coming back. Recent examples of that (all in the…
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Pearson Centre Webinar on Economics After COVID, Featuring Director Jim Stanford
Canada’s macroeconomy continues to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions on normal work and economic activity. Data confirm we are well into the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the impacts on a wide range of indicators (including employment, incomes, consumer confidence, business investment, and government revenues) have yet to be fully felt. To discuss the economic outlook, and the government policies that will be required to respond to it, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford recently joined a webinar hosted by the Pearson Centre, a progressive think tank based in Ottawa. He advanced a range of far-reaching measures, including:…
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Newspaper and Video Coverage of New COVID-19 Report
The Centre for Future Work has released its first major Canadian report, titled 10 Ways the COVID-19 Pandemic Must Change Work for Good. The report, by Economist and Director Jim Stanford, shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing fractures in Canada’s labour market – and argues those fractures must be repaired if the economy is to successfully and sustainably recover from the current unprecedented downturn. The report (co-published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) was featured in extensive front page coverage in the Toronto Star, written by business reporter Jacques Gallant. See his full story here. We have also prepared a short video that summarizes the report, and…
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Ten Ways to Improve Work After COVID-19 Pandemic
Governments, employers, and unions must all work urgently to address several critical weaknesses in Canada’s employment laws and policies to ensure the post-COVID re-opening of the economy can be safe and sustained. That’s the core message of a new research report from the Centre for Future Work. The report is the first publication from the Centre’s new PowerShare research program, undertaken in partnership with the Atkinson Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The study, by the Centre’s Director Jim Stanford, lists 10 specific ways jobs need to be protected and strengthened in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down large sections of the national economy.…
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‘Official’ Unemployment Just the Tip of the Iceberg
This commentary was originally published in the Toronto Star. Statistics Canada has just released its monthly labour force report for April. It’s the first monthly release that captures the full extent of the COVID shutdowns; the previous report (which covered one week in mid-March) reflected only the initial stages of pandemic-related closures. By the time Statistics Canada did its April survey (during the week of April 12-18), millions of workers had stopped working. Not surprisingly, the numbers are grim. 2.4 million Canadians were counted as officially unemployed in April. That’s 13.0% of the labour force – bad by any definition. However, that statistic is only the tip of the iceberg.…
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Help Business – But do it Right
Facing an unprecedented downturn in work, incomes, and spending, the federal government has rolled out major new support programs to help businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic. This support is essential. But government should learn from past experience, and design those support programs carefully for maximum effect and fairness. In this commentary, originally published in the Toronto Star, Jim Stanford identifies several best practices in supporting businesses and industries in an economic crisis. To Help Workers through the COVID-19 Crisis, We Must Help Our Businesses. Here’s How. In the face of unprecedented lay-offs from the COVID-19 lockdowns, the federal government is quickly shoring up Canada’s income support network. The new Canada…