Firm Dynamics: Employment Dynamics Arising from Firm Growth and Contraction in Canada, 2001 to 2009

This paper looks at annual changes in Canadian business sector employment from 2001 to 2009. This period encompasses an expansionary phase (2001 to 2008), followed by a recession (2008/2009). Firm-level data are used to decompose yearly net employment change into gross employment creation and destruction, which makes it possible to measure the size of total annual employment reallocation. These measures of employment turnover are compared across industries and firm size classes.