Recession not damaging Canadian job quality: CIBC

Bulk of job losses in low-paying positions

TORONTO, April 15 /CNW/ - CIBC (CM: TSX; NYSE) - 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 per
cent of the national workforce. However, over the same period Canadian job
quality has basically held steady, declining a trivial 0.2 per cent according
to CIBC's Employment Quality Index (EQI). The bank's EQI 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 three per cent drop in overall employment
coincided with a 7.7 per cent 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 per cent over the past
year and by 4.2 per cent in just half a year."

Mr. 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. "To be sure, the number of high and low-paying jobs fell
dramatically over the past six months, but the damage was more pronounced
among low-paying jobs.

"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 per cent over the past year and by 2.9 per cent 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 EQI during one of the
most difficult recessions in the post-war era 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 per cent 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 per cent drop among men," adds Mr. 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."

The report also identified a number of key trends affecting job quality
in the country.