This paper shows that changes in the skill requirements of jobs are one way by which economic downturns affect job match quality. In doing so this paper makes two contributions to the literature. The first contribution is to document a stylized fact about the cyclicality of skill requirements...

We study the relationship between age and literacy skills in Canada, Norway and the U.S. – countries that represent a wide range of literacy outcomes -- using data from the 1994 and 2003 International Adult Literacy Surveys. In cross-sectional data there is a weak negative partial...

Between 1970 and 2005, the share of total earnings in the Canadian labour market going to middle-class workers has fallen significantly, while the earnings share of higher-earnings workers has risen. Is the middle-class being hollowed out? A paper by CLSRN affiliate Charles Beach (Queen’s...

Au Canada, environ 20 % des emplois sont réglementés. En moyenne, ces emplois sont mieux rémunérés car ils exigent en général un meilleur niveau d’éducation ou de formation et la réglementation contrôlant l’accès à ces emplois tend à en restreindre l’admission. La politique...

Canada’s immigration system is currently undergoing significant change driven by several goals that include: (1) a desire to improve the economic outcomes of entering immigrants, given the deterioration in labour market outcomes over the past several decades; (2) an attempt to better...

Toute personne entrant sur le marché du travail avec un niveau scolaire relativement faible découvre souvent qu’il lui manque le capital humain et les diplômes nécessaires pour s’adapter au marché du travail qui change rapidement au Canada. La grave récession des débuts des années...

While not speaking either English or French is widely understood to be a serious barrier to employment and gainful remuneration in Canada, a study entitled “The effect of linguistic proximity on the occupational assimilation of immigrant men†(CLSRN Working Paper no. 144) by Alicia...

Ever since the seminal work of Stigler (1962), economists have recognized that information in markets is costly to acquire and can lead to “search frictionsâ€. The remarkable growth in online search has substantially lowered the cost of information acquisition. Despite this, there is...

Entre 1970 et 2005, la part des gains totaux de main-d’Å“uvre canadienne obtenue par la classe moyenne a considérablement chuté, alors que celle des travailleurs mieux rémunérés a augmenté. A-t-on épuisé la classe moyenne ? Une étude du membre affilié du RCCMTC Charles Beach...

Examples of educational mismatch and overqualifcation in the labour market can often be found in the same office building – the clerical worker with a bachelor’s degree reporting to a manager with a high school education – as an example. Some have argued that mismatch in...