IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sls/resrep/0703.html

Indicators of Labour Market Conditions in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Sharpe
  • Anne-Marie Shaker

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the relevant measures and indicators of labour market conditions, as concern unemployment, in the context of current and future labour market and economic trends. It is also to verify whether and how the importance of these measures has changed over time. There are three main objectives for this report. The first is to ascertain to what degree the unemployment rate is an adequate predictor of labour market conditions in the context of the changing economy. Labour market conditions refer to the state of the labour market and encompass different dimensions. The second is to assess the suitability of other labour market indicators as predictors of labour market conditions. The third is to discuss the feasibility of aggregating relevant labour market indicators into a composite indicator of labour market conditions that might be considered for use in the design of government programs. This report concludes that the unemployment rate is actually a good indicator of labour market conditions, although it is wise to supplement it with additional indicators. The construction of composite indices does not seem to provide much more information on labour market conditions than the unemployment rate does.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Sharpe & Anne-Marie Shaker, 2007. "Indicators of Labour Market Conditions in Canada," CSLS Research Reports 2007-03, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
  • Handle: RePEc:sls:resrep:0703
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://csls.ca/research/indicators-of-labour-market-conditions-in-canada/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/csls2007-03-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. W. Craig Riddell, 2000. "Measuring Unemployment and Structural Unemployment," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 26(s1), pages 101-108, July.
    2. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2005. "How Should We Measure The “Economic” Aspects Of Well‐Being?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 51(2), pages 311-336, June.
    3. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2010. "The Index of Economic Well-Being," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 25-42.
    4. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2003. "An Index of Labour Market Well-Being for OECD Countries," CSLS Research Reports 2003-05, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    5. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2002. "An Index of Economic Well–Being for Selected OECD Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(3), pages 291-316, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2014. "Measuring Economic Insecurity in Rich and Poor Nations," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 53-76, May.
    2. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2011. "Moving from a GDP-Based to a Well-Being Based Metric of Economic Performance and Social Progress: Results from the Index of Economic Well-Being for OECD Countries, 1980-2009," CSLS Research Reports 2011-12, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    3. Berloffa, Gabriella & Modena, Francesca, 2012. "Economic well-being in Italy: The role of income insecurity and intergenerational inequality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 751-765.
    4. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2011. "Beyond GDP: Measuring Economic Well-Being in Canada and the Provinces, 1981-2010," CSLS Research Reports 2011-11, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    5. Géraldine Thiry, 2015. "Beyond GDP: Conceptual Grounds of Quantification. The Case of the Index of Economic Well-Being (IEWB)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 313-343, April.
    6. Andrew Sharpe, 2004. "Literature Review of Frameworks for Macro-indicators," CSLS Research Reports 2004-03, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    7. Andrew Sharpe & Jeremy Smith, 2005. "Measuring the Impact of Research on Well-being: A Survey of Indicators of Well-being," CSLS Research Reports 2005-02, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    8. Lars Osberg, 2009. "Measuring Economic Security in Insecure Times: New Perspectives, New Events, and the Index of Economic Well-being," CSLS Research Reports 2009-12, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    9. Antonio Jurado & Jesus Perez-Mayo, 2012. "Construction and Evolution of a Multidimensional Well-Being Index for the Spanish Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 107(2), pages 259-279, June.
    10. Edward N. Wolff & Ajit Zacharias & Thomas Masterson & Selçuk Eren & Andrew Sharpe & Elspeth Hazell, 2012. "A Comparison of Inequality and Living Standards in Canada and the United States Using an Expanded Measure of Economic Well-Being," CSLS Research Reports 2012-01, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    11. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2010. "The Index of Economic Well-Being," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 25-42.
    12. Nicholas Rohde & Kam Ki Tang & Prasada Rao, 2011. "Income volatility and insecurity in the U.S., Germany and Britain," Discussion Papers Series 434, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    13. Rodriguez-Oreggia, Eduardo & Cardozo-Medeiros, Diego & Parra-Diaz, Pedro Pablo, 2014. "Measuring a Territorial Labor Market Development Index," MPRA Paper 54439, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Syrovátka, Miroslav & Schlossarek, Martin, 2019. "Measuring development with inequality: How (should) aggregate indicators of development account for inequality?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Antonella Rita Ferrara & Rosanna Nisticò, 2014. "Measuring Well-Being In A Multidimensional Perspective: A Multivariate Statistical Application To Italian Regions," Working Papers 201406, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
    16. Mariña Fernández Salgado & Francesco Figari & Holly Sutherland & Alberto Tumino, 2014. "Welfare Compensation for Unemployment in the Great Recession," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 177-204, May.
    17. Centre for the Study of Living Standards, 2002. "Raising Canadian Living Standards: A Framework for Discussion," CSLS Research Reports 02td, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    18. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Christoph M. Schmidt, 2010. "Beyond GDP and Back: What is the Value-Added by Additional Components of Welfare Measurement?," RatSWD Working Papers 167, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    19. Francisco José Goerlich Gisbert & Rafael Pinilla Pallejà, 2003. "Distribución De La Renta Y El Potencial De Calidad De Vida (Qlp) En España (1981-1999)," Working Papers. Serie EC 2003-03, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    20. Waldo Krugell & W.a. Naudé & Stephanie Rossouw, 2000. "The Quality of Metropolitan City Life in South Africa," Regional and Urban Modeling 283600049, EcoMod.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sls:resrep:0703. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CSLS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cslssca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.