Perspectives on Labour and Income

Description:

Current Issue:

Volume 20, No. 2: Summer 2008

Description:

• "Hours polarization revisited" looks at how hours of work can vary dramatically from job to job. This article quantifies changes in average work hours since the 1970s and examines how changes in the distribution of work hours contribute to the overall trend.
• "Retiring together, or not" examines the retirement patterns of spouses in dual-earner couples.
• "Work-related training" looks at how participation in job-related courses changed between 1993 and 2002 across a number of social and demographic characteristics.
• "Running a census in a tight labour market" describes how census managers coped with the hiring problems caused by a tight labour market.
• "Life after teenage motherhood" looks at women 30 to 39 years of age to determine whether teenage childbearing is related to long-term socioeconomic characteristics, notably educational attainment, labour force participation and living in low income.
• "Low-income children" examines the absence of change between 1989 and 2004 in the proportion of children under 18 years of age living in a low-income family.

Previous Issues:

Volume 20, No. 1: Spring 2008

Description:

• "Work stress and job performance" investigates levels, sources and effects of work stress for various socio-demographic and occupational groups.
• "Returning to the job after childbirth" examines both the short and the long-term effects of childbirth on the employment, job mobility and earnings of Canadian mothers over the past two decades.
• "Immigrants in the hinterlands" finds better economic integration of immigrants outside the larger urban centres, even after taking into consideration differences in education, ability in an official language, admission class and country of origin.
• "The dynamics of housing affordability" provides a first-ever longitudinal review of housing affordability. It examines the likelihood of spending 30% or more of household income on shelter, how often this occurs and whether it is occasional or persistent.
• "RRSP investments" examines the characteristics of families with registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) and the allocation of assets within their RRSPs according to the level of predictability of the return on investment.
• "Earnings in the last decade" examines the evolution of earnings in Canada from 1997 to 2007.

Volume 19, No. 4: Winter 2007

Description:

• "Depression at work" looks at the impact of depression on job performance. In 2002, almost 4% of employed Canadians aged 25 to 64 had had an episode of depression in the previous year. These workers had high odds of reducing work activity because of a long-term health condition, of having had at least one mental health disability day in the past two weeks, and of having been absent from work in the past week.
• "Pensions and retirement savings of families" examines the pension plan coverage and retirement savings of prime-aged couples over the last two decades, as the substantial growth in wives’ labour market participation and the slight increase in their registered pension plan coverage only partially offset a substantial decline in husbands’ coverage. On average, the retirement savings of these families rose, but the distribution became more unequal, mirroring the sharp increase in family earnings inequality since the early 1980s.
• "Economic integration of immigrants children, 1996 to 2004" compares, over a six-year period (either 1996 to 2001 or 1999 to 2004), the earnings of these second-generation Canadians who have a strong labour force attachment to those of their peers with Canadian-born parents. It also compares the two groups’ family characteristics, educational attainment and geographical distribution, and the extent to which these factors may lead to differences in earnings.
• "High-income Canadians" presents various criteria for defining high income and looks at some of the characteristics and behaviours of high-income taxfilers under these definitions. Income taxes paid and effective tax rates are also examined.
• "Spending patterns in Canada and the U.S." is a comparison of spending patterns in Canada and the U.S. between the early 1980s and 2003.

Volume 19, No. 3: Autumn 2007

Description:

• "Labour inputs to non-profit organizations" describes and quantifies the multiple labour inputs used by non-profit organizations.
• "Trends and seasonality in absenteeism" looks at differences between full- and part-week absences.
• "Working at home: An update" analyzes the pervasive fall-off in telework popularity since the turn of the century.
• "Life after high tech" looks at permanent layoff rates and earnings of high-tech workers compared with those of workers in other industries.
• "Participation of older workers" examines labour market trends within the population aged 55 to 64, and the employment characteristics of workers in this age group vis-à-vis those aged 25 to 54.
• "Public pensions and work" reviews take-up rates of Canada Pension Plan / Quebec Pension Plan (CPP/QPP) benefits, co-receipt of CPP/QPP and other benefits, and employment following benefits take-up for taxfilers in their 60s.