While Canadian jobs are disappearing at a rate not seen since the 1982 recession, the current recession has not hurt the employment quality of the remaining Canadian jobs, finds a new report from CIBC World Markets Inc.

Since October 2008, the Canadian economy has lost 356,000 jobs or 2.1% of the national workforce. However, over the same period Canadian job quality has basically held steady, declining a trivial 0.2% according to CIBC’s Employment Quality Index. The index ranks job quality by assessing a number of factors including the distribution of part-time vs. full-time jobs; self-employment vs. paid employment; and the compensation ranking of full-time paid employment in more than 100 industry groups.

“The relative stability of employment quality during the current recession is at odds with not only the pace of job losses in the economy, but also the trajectory seen during previous recessions,” says Benjamin Tal, senior economist and author of the report.

“During the 1991 recession, the 3% drop in overall employment coincided with a 7.7% drop in the quality of employment. The Canadian experience this time around is also very different than the situation in the U.S. where the quality of employment has fallen by 6.4% over the past year and by 4.2% in just half a year.”

Tal attributes the surprising strength in Canadian employment quality to the fact that the bulk of job losses to date have been in low-paying positions.

“One reason behind the fact that employment in low-paying sectors is falling faster than in high-paying ones is the significant decline in employment among young Canadians. Total employment among workers age 20-24 fell by no less than 4.2% over the past year and by 2.9% over the past six months alone. And since many of these young workers are in sectors or occupations that earn less than the average wage, this trend worked as a positive for the quality measure.”

But the key factor in the relative stability of the job index during this recession is the role of women in the labour force. Not only has the employment rate among women risen dramatically over the past decade, so has the quality of the jobs they hold. The number of women in professional occupations in business and finance has risen by no less than 50% over the past decade — more than double the rate seen among men. The same can be found in many other sectors such as public service and the social sciences.

“And so far, women are faring much better than men during this recession, with total employment among women hardly changed over the past year vs. a 3.3% drop among men,” adds Tal. “And the fact that many of these women hold relative high quality jobs was an important factor behind the resiliency of our quality index.”

Tal notes that while the Canadian economy, including the Canadian labour market, will continue to deteriorate in the coming months, the strength of job quality bodes well for the future.

“The relative stability of our employment quality index suggests that when the labour market turns a corner, job gains will translate into income gains much more quickly than they have in the past, as the base of the existing labour pool is of a higher quality when compared to previous recessions.”

IE