Behind the layoffs how canadas economy changed

Because of population aging, employment in health-related occupations has grown sharply since the early s. Prior to COVID, technological advances caused by the growth in computing power and artificial intelligence led to concerns about the ability of advanced economies to create enough jobs in the coming years.

Concerns also emerged regarding the potentially disruptive effect of these technologies on the task content of jobs Brynjolfsson and McAfee ; Acemoglu and Restrepo It is conceivable, for example, that in response to the COVID pandemic, firms might speed up the automation of codifiable tasks in jobs that cannot be done at home.

Meanwhile, growing pressures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have led some national governments to reduce their economic reliance on traditional energy-producing sectors such as coal mining and oil and gas extraction. Therefore, similar to how past shifts away from manufacturing led to job displacement in the manufacturing sector, shifts away from traditional energy-producing sectors or from jobs where telework is not feasible could lead to job displacement in new sectors and occupations in the future.

Whether they are caused by globalization, technological advances, environmental pressures, or pandemic-induced labour market downturns, inter-sectoral and inter-occupational employment shifts will pose challenges for the workers who are directly affected and for the policies that help workers adjust to job displacement.

The same is true for future changes in the task content of jobs. In this context, an important question is the degree to which current training, job search assistance and transfer programs—some of which were designed several years ago—will best serve the needs of the future cohorts of displaced workers.

To gain some perspective on these issues, it is important to take a long-term view and assess how the magnitude of job displacement has evolved over the past few decades in Canada. A more in-depth study of job displacement during that period can be found in Morissette and Qiu These three waves of the LWF allow for analyses based on consistent definitions of layoffs and post-displacement outcomes, and allow for a disaggregation of statistics by worker age, sex, tenure and province.

Because industry classifications have changed over time—from the Standard Industrial Classification during the s to the North American Industry Classification System from onward—consistent industry codes cannot be produced at a detailed level. Nevertheless, it is possible to produce displacement statistics for the manufacturing sector and for sectors outside manufacturing for the to period. Layoff rates are measured using the concept of permanent layoffs.

A permanent layoff occurs when a laid-off worker does not return to their employer in the year of the layoff or in the following year. Note Otherwise, a layoff is considered temporary. Since the third wave of the LWF ends in , and since one extra year of data is needed to identify whether a layoff is permanent, the observation period considered in this study ends in Chart 1 and Table 1 show the layoff rates for Canadian employees aged 25 to 64 from to As expected, layoff rates increased during the recessions of to , to and to , and fell during subsequent expansionary years.

However, despite the aforementioned changes in the economic environment, layoff rates have not trended upward in Canada since the late s. In —prior to the last recession—layoff rates were more than 2 percentage points lower than in , the peak of the economic expansion that occurred during the second half of the s.

Although layoff rates increased from to , as soon as , they reached lower levels than those observed during the late s or the second half of the s.

As a result, layoff rates averaged 6. Layoff rates did not trend upward from to for both men and women, Note in manufacturing and outside manufacturing Chart 1. The absence of increases in layoff rates in manufacturing from to may seem surprising since manufacturing employment fell by about half a million during this period.

Layoff rates in manufacturing did not increase during that period because manufacturing firms adjusted to reduced labour demand, to a large extent, by reducing hiring rates Morissette, Lu and Qiu The data also indicate that, although layoff rates in the oil-producing provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador rose sharply in and following declines in oil prices, layoff rates in other provinces were fairly stable from to Table 2.

The absence of an upward trend in layoff rates is robust at the national level. When data are disaggregated by worker age, sex and tenure, there is generally no evidence of an upward trend Chart 2. Note The only exception occurs for high-tenure men men who have been employed with the same firm for six years or more.

For this group, the likelihood of job loss was between 0. For all other age—gender—tenure combinations, there is no evidence that the risk of job loss increased over the past few decades. Although the risk of job loss has not increased in Canada in general since the late s, media reports often highlight mass layoffs that occur in certain cities or regions. Generally, little attention is paid to job losses that occur outside mass layoffs. This raises the following question: of all job losses that occur in a given year in Canada, what percentage comes from mass layoffs?

Table 3 answers this question by quantifying, for selected years, the share of layoffs that came from mass layoffs in the commercial sector i. Note Results are shown for employees aged 25 to She's still holding out hope she'll be able to get her job back once vaccines are distributed and things return to normal.

The year-old says she's taking things one day at a time and is hoping not to have to switch careers at her age. That's not enough for her to live on. Gaa said she's had to dip into her retirement savings and didn't want to tell her kids, as she thinks of herself as pretty independent.

One of her daughters, who works in the casino industry, has also been forced out of work. It's not just different industries being hit unevenly, either. The RBC report shows that the job losses are worse for members of certain demographic groups, too. Mothers, visible minorities, young people and new immigrants are all disproportionately impacted.

Winny Shen, an associate professor at Schulich School of Business who studies inclusion in the workplace, worries career interruptions like the ones we're seeing now might signal to employers that women are less committed.

She says that can have repercussions on a company's willingness to spend money on retraining. Coming out of the pandemic, there might also be a tendency for companies to tighten the purse strings in general, Shen says. There might be issues with understaffing — asking people to do more with fewer people as a way to cut costs. Almost a year since that initial lockdown, a sizeable number of Canadian women are at risk of their skills atrophying, Desjardins finds.

She says economists even have a name for it — they call it the scarring effect. She says some of the skills you have diminish when you're not using them. The economist points to a few areas of potential job growth, like child care, remote working or digital sales. Valentina Dzeoba has also been unemployed for more than a year.

The Thunder Bay, Ont. For a while, she was working one day a week helping people retrain to find work, but says jobs in the community are hard to come by. Like many people, Dzeoba has pivoted, going from manufacturing to retraining as a hairdresser. She says it's something she's always been interested in, and that the change has been beneficial. By Maclean's April 30, The dramatic measures taken by governments and businesses to slow down the spread of COVID has created a tidal wave of layoffs in Canada and around the world.

In March employment fell by more than one million, according to Statistics Canada, while April is expected to bring millions in additional lost jobs.

As of April 28 Service Canada had received applications from 7. Both figures are set to climb. A report released by Statistics Canada found one-in-five Canadian businesses had laid off more than 80 per cent of their staff.

The vast majority have been described as temporary layoffs. A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which represents , small- and medium-sized businesses, found one-third of businesses fear they may close within a month without financial assistance. General Motors : Announced all production will be suspended , impacting 4, jobs. Ford Motors Co : Shut down all production in Canada, affecting 6, workers.

Toyota Motor Corp : Suspended all operations in Canada affecting 8, workers. Porter Airlines : Suspended all flights and laid off most of its 1, workforce. Cirque du Soleil : Quebec circus entertainment giant suspended all shows and lays off 95 per cent of its workforce, or 4, people. Fiat Chrysler : Suspended operations and lays off 8, workers. Irving Shipbuilding : Suspended operations at its Halifax shipyard and lays off 1, workers.

Air Canada: The carrier said on March 20 it would lay off 5, flight attendants, followed by a decision to put of its 4, pilots on unpaid leave. On March 30 Air Canada said it would lay off an additional 16, employees effective April 3.

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity : Temporarily laid off staff, about 75 per cent of its workforce. Stratford Festival : Laid off nearly employees after cancelling all shows until May 2.

Stratford Festival : Issued temporary layoff notices. Cineplex : Theatre giant laid off all part-time staff, roughly 11, jobs , some of whom are hired by Sobeys grocery chain to meet demand. Transat : Airline laid off 3, staff , about 70 per cent of its workforce. Bombardier : Quebec transportation giant laid off 12, workers in Canada. City of Saskatoon : Laid off temporary staff. New Flyer Industries : Winnipeg-based bus maker temporarily laid off 6, employees and permanently cuts jobs. Quebec City : Laid off 2, city workers.

Saltwire Network : Atlantic Canada media chain laid off workers. WestJet : Airline laid off 6, of its workers. Update April 9 : Rehiring 6, employees because of federal wage subsidy. Update April 16 : Will lay off 1, pilots between May 1 and June 1. White Spot : B. Airbus : The French aircraft manufacturer laid off 1, workers, half its workforce in Mirabel, Que where it builds the A aircraft.

TC Transcontinental : Laid off 1, people in its printing unit. Vancouver Aquarium : A week after closing its doors, laid off employees , or 60 per cent of its workforce.