Canadians working too much?

Despite all the political scandals, very distinct political visions for this country, and recent attempts by political leaders to get Canadians to “rise up”, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of public enthusiasm in this federal election campaign yet. One problem may be that Canadians are simply working too much. Recently released figures from OECD show that Canadians aren’t just […]

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Reforming Ontario’s Universities

I have just finished reading a 2009 book entitled Academic Transformation:  The Forces Reshaping Higher Education in Ontario.  The book, written by Ian Clark, Greg Moran, Michael Skolnik and David Trick, has received a fair bit of attention among post-secondary (PSE) wonks.  While I find it informative, I am uncomfortable with the book’s central feature:  a proposal to reform Ontario’s PSE sector with the […]

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The Rise of the Global Elite

“The already wealthy have emerged from the global recession in an even wealthier position. What does the rise of global elites mean to power and influence at home and abroad?” That’s the blurb from TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, the latest Canadian news show to tackle the issue that explains so much of what is going on: rising inequality. […]

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The Gender Wage Gap Revisited

Statscan have released their regular (about every 5 years) statistical compilation, Women in Canada. In a box in the earnings section – around Table 20- one will find a short summary of a paper by Michael Baker and Statscan employee  Marie Drolet from the December, 2010 issue of Canadian Public Policy. Entitled “The Gender Wage Gap Revisited” it states that: […]

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Economic Climate for Bargaining

The December 2010 issue of the quarterly Economic Climate for Bargaining publication that I produce is now on CUPE’s website in both English and French. In each issue I summarize developments and trends for the economy, labour markets, inflation and wages, and also include short pieces of 1-2 pages on related topical issues.  In this issue, the focus is very much on pre-budget […]

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Global Wage Crisis

The International Labour Organization has just released its second Global Wage Report, “Wage Policies in Times of Crisis.” The International Trade Union Confederation’s press release follows: 15 December 2010 – The ITUC has welcomed the second Global Wage Report from the International Labour Organization (ILO). “Today’s report reinforces what unions around the world have been saying about the economic crisis […]

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A Tale of Two Inflations: Canada vs. Ontario

Today’s Consumer Price Index release told a tale of two inflations. The national rate decreased from 1.8% to 1.7% while Ontario’s inflation rate remained at 2.9%, the highest in Canada. Monetary Policy Of course, monetary policy should reflect the whole country. The national inflation rate decreasing to 1.7% in August begs the question of why the Bank of Canada has […]

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What’s Happening to Wages?

One thing I find a bit annoying over at Statscan is that detailed tables related to a release sometimes appear on the web site a few days after headline numbers are released in the Daily. I was phoned by a couple of reporters seeking comment following the release of wage data (from the Survey of Employment, Earnings and Hours) in […]

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Race and Earnings and the Census

I’ve blogged previously on this topic but it is worth revisiting in light of the Census debate.  The gold standard for looking at racial pay gaps is analysis of differences in earnings between Canadian born whites and visible minorities since this excludes differences between immigrants and non immigrants (most importantly country of education and work experience.) This is really only […]

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Inflation: The 1% Menace?

Between May and June, consumer prices decreased in both absolute and seasonally-adjusted terms. As a result, the annual inflation rate fell to 1.0%, about half what it had been at the start of this year. One province, Manitoba, actually slipped into deflation. The Bank of Canada’s core rate edged down to 1.7%. Monetary Policy Inflation’s continuing decline begs the question […]

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Jobs and Inflation: The Missing Link

There seems to be a consensus that the Bank of Canada will raise its target interest rate tomorrow. I thought that last month’s rate hike was premature, so I see no reason for another hike this month. The argument for higher interest rates is that they are needed to ward off future inflation (even though inflation is currently below the […]

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More Jobs, But Fewer Hours

This morning, Statistics Canada reported that employment jumped by an incredible 93,200 in June. But the total number of hours worked actually declined. In effect, less work was divided up between more workers. (By contrast, a similar employment jump in April corresponded to a large increase in hours worked.) Less Unemployment: A Central Canadian Story The advantage of dividing less […]

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The new Grecian formula: still toxic

The latest issue of the quarterly Economic Climate for Bargaining publication that I produce has just been posted on CUPE’s website. In this issue I have pieces about: the new spectre that is haunting Europe, this time of a public debt crisis impact analysis of Ontario’s HST tax reform by income group, already discussed below some analysis of recent employment, inflation and […]

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April’s Shower of Jobs

This morning, Statistics Canada reported that employment shot up by an incredible 108,700 in April. Although employment has been recovering for almost a year, it had lagged behind the rebound in output. But today’s job numbers show a 0.6% rise in monthly employment, double the monthly GDP growth reported last week. Total hours worked increased by 1.1% in April, confirming […]

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Facts on public sector wages

The National Institute on Retirement Security in the U.S. produces some really excellent reports which should be more widely read, and not just on pensions or retirement income.  Last week they published a good report, Out of Balance?  comparing public and private sector compensation over the past 20 years, written by two professors at the University of Wisconsin.  This report […]

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Strong Output, Weak Payrolls

GDP Halfway Home Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) blew past an important milestone in January. Output is now closer to the high-point attained before the crisis than to the low-point reached during the crisis. Specifically, GDP (in chained 2002 dollars) peaked at $1,241 billion in July 2008 and plummeted to $1,185 billion in May 2009. By January 2010, it recovered […]

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Ontario Budget

Today’s provincial budget continues previously announced stimulus in the short term and projects severe, but largely unspecified, spending restraint in the long term. The most surprising new measure, a lower electricity rate for northern Ontario industry, is of little fiscal significance (costing just 0.1% of the budget). A less surprising measure of potentially greater fiscal significance is the attempt to […]

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Wages Lag Inflation

Wages had seemed to be one of the relative bright spots during the economic crisis. Despite the carnage in Canada’s job market, average hourly earnings held up fairly well. However, comparing today’s Consumer Price Index release for January with the Labour Force Survey for that month reveals that inflation exceeded fractional wage gains over the past year. Specifically, the annual […]

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Part-Time Recovery

In January, Canada gained 43,000 jobs, almost all of them part-time. Any employment increase is certainly good news and some part-time positions might eventually become full-time positions. The obvious limitation of part-time jobs is that they provide fewer hours of paid work and hence less income. Statistics Canada’s R-8 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers and a portion of those […]

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BC’s Urban Housing (Un)affordability

A new study published today by the Frontier Institute for Public Policy finds that Vancouver has the most unaffordable urban housing market not just in Canada, but in all of Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. This conclusion is based on a very simple, yet effective measure of housing affordability: the ratio of median housing […]

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Managerial Earnings

My commentary on Tuesday morning’s Employment Insurance release mentioned the simultaneous Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) release. The SEPH indicated that, from October 2008 through October 2009, average weekly earnings edged up 1.6% across all Canadian payrolls. Earnings fell in forestry, construction, manufacturing, and a few service industries. But no one reported the most striking figure: earnings in […]

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The Good Ol’ Days

My two kids are still far too young to be farmed out to earn their keep in the labour market, but when they are (in about a decade), I really hope that the value of minimum wages in Canada improves.  If not, not only are they going to have to work harder and harder to get by along with millions of others young […]

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Ontario Unemployment Hits All-Time High

According to today’s Labour Force Survey, the national unemployment increase (83,800) was twice the employment decrease (41,800) in May. The explanation is that the labour force expanded by 42,000 as Canada’s population continued to grow. While some people are entering the labour market and getting jobs, many more are being laid off. As a result, total unemployment blew past the […]

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Unemployment Hits Twelve-Year High

Preliminary reports on this morning’s Labour Force Survey emphasize that the unemployment rate reached its highest level since 2003. However, the situation is far worse in absolute terms. The number of officially unemployed Canadians rose by 106,000 in February, pushing the total over 1.4 million. In other words, the ranks of Canada’s unemployed swelled to their highest level since February […]

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Wage-Price Deflationary Spiral

I don’t usually read (or cite) Sherry Cooper, chief economist for BMO Capital Markets, but in a recent article she was on the money: Layoffs and reductions in hours worked have been accelerating in recent months and cover firms in virtually every sector of the U.S. economy. The same has been true in Canada, but to a much lesser degree […]

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Vanier Institute’s report on family finances 2009

has just been published and is avalaible here. It largely confirms research conducted by PEF members on household wealth, indebtedness and income.  The report highlights the state of financial precarity of many households, the gap between income and spending, the growing debtload and the important impact the “recession” (if we still want to call it that, given its deflationary driven […]

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Misaligned Priorities

So Industry Minister Tony Clement is now insisting that cuts to workers wages will be a condition of any bail-out package for the auto industry.  This comes after an economic statement that was going to remove the right to strike and legislate public sector wages, and before a budget that could also include wage cuts or constraints for workers. I don’t recall constraints […]

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The Spectre of Deflation

Seasonally-adjusted consumer prices fell by 0.5% between September and October. While less dramatic than the 1.0% drop in the US, the sudden drop in Canadian prices also raises the possibility of deflation. The annual inflation rate declined from 3.4% in September to 2.6% in October, well below the US rate of 3.7% in October. This pace could put Canada on […]

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