Canada / High-skilled jobs in Canada have experienced a notable increase in relative share says TD

The issue of job-market “polarization” has captured significant attention in the U.S. and other ad- vanced economies in recent years. This longer-term trend has been characterized by the relative decline of medium-skilled, medium-paid jobs against a backdrop of growing opportunities for both highly-skilled, highly-paid and low-skilled, low-paid employment. Indeed, a 2011 report by TD Economics entitled, “Caught in the Middle” added to the powerful evidence of polarization in the U.S. job market. Other reports have noted a similar trend taking shape in Europe.

The report by TD examines whether this development is being mirrored in the Canadian labour market.

Main findings

• The examination of trends in Canada’s labour market over the past decade reveals more of a unipolar (i.e., an “L-shape”) rather than the bi-polar (“U-shape”) pattern recorded in the U.S. Put another way, high-skilled jobs in Canada have experienced a notable increase in relative share, whereas both medium- and low-skilled employment has lost ground.

• Another major distinction between the two countries is that Canada has registered a considerably less pronounced swing in jobs from the middle to the high end of the skills spectrum. This trend can be chalked up in part to the Canadian economy’s greater weighting towards resources and more prolonged strength in construction activity since 1999 that has generated jobs for many middle-skilled Canadians.
• Despite the movement up the skills curve, there has been relatively little wage polarization in Canada. Indeed, wage growth across the major occupational groupings has been running in a surprisingly tight range of 2.5-3.5% annually over the past decade regardless of skill level.
• The fact that some of the most highly demanded occupations in the job market — chief among them trades, technicians and many professional groups — have not recorded above-average wage in- creases is at odds with the perception that there is a large-scale skills mismatch in Canada’s labour market. More research in Canada is required to better understand the underlying dynamics at play between current (and future) labour supply and demand.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Are Medium-Skilled Jobs In Canada Experiencing A Hollowing Out, U.S.-Style?