Workplace Challenges

Job quality deteriorates: CIBC report

OTTAWA -- Fewer Canadians are losing their jobs as the recession eases its grip on the economy, but the quality of the jobs they do have is deteriorating, according to a report issued Monday by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

THE CANADIAN PRESS
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CIBC says its job quality index -- which measures things like wages and part-time versus full-time work -- has fallen 3.8% in the last six months.

The decline in the job quality index, ironically, comes in a period when Statistics Canada says the national employment situation showed a slight improvement in recent months.

WORSENED SINCE MARCH


"All the components that compose our quality index have worsened since March of this year," CIBC economist Benjamin Tal wrote in the report.


For example, part-time employment rose over 0.2%, while full-time employment fell and self employment surged by 3%, versus a 0.5% decline in paid employment.

"But the most important factor that has contributed to the recent decline in our quality index is that any gain in employment over the past six months was among low-paying jobs while the number of high-paying jobs has, in fact, declined by at least 3%."

Most of the deterioration has been in Western Canada, with British Columbia leading the decline, the bank said.

In keeping with the finding, real wages and salaries fell 0.7% in the second quarter of 2009, just when the labour market carnage was easing.

"Granted, a low-quality job is better than no job, but the headline employment numbers overstate the real health of the Canadian labour market," Tal said of the Statistics Canada figures.

Ironically, at the depth of the 2008-09 recession, which cost about 356,600 Canadians their jobs, the quality index nudged down only a slight 0.2%.



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