The economics of temporary foreign workers
A dispatch from UBC labour economist, David Green: Wages, Markets and Temporary Workers David A. Green Last November, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced a scheme to...
View ArticleMore on the Strange Economics of Temporary Foreign Workers
Further to my and David Green’s posts on the strange economics of temporary foreign workers .. http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2007/02/08/the-strange-economics-of-temporary-foreign-workers/...
View ArticleMore on the strange economics of temporary foreign workers
The Alberta Federation of Labour reports that more people now coming into province as temporary workers than traditional immigrants. From their press release: Alberta has become the first province in...
View ArticleThe Strange Economics of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
I and David Green from UBC have commented on this topic before. A key question is why we have a program to bring in temporary workers at the prevailing wage, rather than let rising real wages signal...
View ArticleThe Economist on Temporary Foreign Workers
Today’s edition of The Economist magazine includes a good article on temporary foreign workers in Canada. It extensively quotes Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. The present...
View ArticleIs Canada Facing Acute Skill Shortages?
Given the rapid expansion of the temporary foreign worker program and the frequent complaints of employers that workers are hard to find, one might expect that Government of Canada research would...
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The Temporary Recovery
Forget total employment numbers, it’s the types of jobs coming back that count. There is a shadow side to this recovery that may undo it in the end. Uncertainty is fast becoming the new normal in the...
View ArticleThe Continuing Rise of Temporary Work
I made a short presentation on the disturbing rise of temporary work last week. It seems the cutting edge of the new normal is to be found in our schools, colleges and universities. As most of us would...
View ArticleReforming Ontario’s Universities
I have just finished reading a 2009 book entitled Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education in Ontario. The book, written by Ian Clark, Greg Moran, Michael Skolnik and David...
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In the Wake of the Crisis: Bully Capitalism
A shorter version of this article appears today at Economy Lab, the Globe and Mail’s on-line business feature. Capitalism has entered an ugly new era, one that may work well for the shareholders of...
View ArticleWho’s a bigger drag on Canada’s future? The old or the young?
This is my latest column for Canadian Business magazine. Giorgio, a hard-working, smart-as-a-whip University of Toronto student, asked me a great question after a recent guest lecture: What if the...
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While You Were Sleeping: Fed Policies Make It Easier to Hire a Cheaper You
A shorter version of this article appeared today in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab Have you noticed how common it has become to talk about replacing workers with even cheaper workers? If you’re...
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Temporary Foreign Workers and the Labour Market
Further to recent commentary regarding the Harper government’s dramatic expansion of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TWF) program, consider this shocking factoid: Even before the expansion of the program...
View ArticleFewer Unemployed Eligible for Benefits
The annual Employment Insurance Coverage Survey is out, here. The rate of eligibility for regular benefits from Employment Insurance is the lowest since 2003, the earliest year that there is...
View ArticleThe Harper Government’s New Math
Every time this government crows about its job creation record, I cringe. They have moved the finish line and declared victory. No reason to worry about the unemployed here, folks. Let’s move on to...
View ArticleTemporary Foreign Workers
Armine and I have some comments in today’s Toronto Star article on Temporary Foreign Workers (page B1). Armine has been commenting extensively on this issue and my head talked for a few seconds on last...
View ArticleSocial Assistance in Canada
This week I am attending a conference entitled “Welfare Reform in Canada: Provincial Social Assistance in Comparative Perspective,” organized by Professor Daniel Béland. The focus of the conference is...
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More Evidence that Temporary Foreign Worker Program Takes Jobs Away from...
Yet another report, this time by SFU Public Policy Professor Dominique M. Gross, finds evidence that Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program is bad for domestic workers. The report looks at BC and...
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Is Canada becoming a ‘part-time’ nation – the value of LMI
Most of the jobs added to the Canadian labour market in 2014 were part-time – prompting headlines such as “Experts fret Canada becoming a nation of part-time workers“. Are we really a part-time nation?...
View ArticleShould Welfare Recipients Try Harder to Find Work?
This morning the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation released a new report about “motivational interviewing” for welfare recipients. The link to the full report is here, and the link to the...
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