Economic and Social Reports, July 2022

Released: 2022-07-27

The July 2022 issue of Economic and Social Reports is now available and contains three articles.

Businesses plan to use various strategies to cope with labour shortages

The article "Employer responses to labour shortages" found that businesses that expect labour shortages are far more likely than other businesses to consider increasing the wages of new or existing employees in 2022. The wage growth in these businesses could be 6.1% in 2022 compared with 3.6% in other businesses.

The extra wage growth expected in businesses facing labour shortages, relative to other businesses, is fairly small (less than 1.0 percentage point) in retail trade, finance and insurance and in arts, entertainment and recreation, but varies between 4.0 and 5.3 percentage points in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; information and cultural industries; and professional, scientific, and technical services.

Based on data from the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, this study also found that these businesses are more likely to increase benefits, to provide flexible work arrangements, and to increase the human capital of their workforce by, for example, providing training.

Unpaid childcare, mostly provided by women, was valued at about 15% of gross domestic product in 2015

Unpaid childcare provided by parents in Canada was valued at about $284 billion in 2015, around 15% of gross domestic product (GDP) for that year. Women accounted for about 60% of the hours spent on unpaid childcare and other unpaid household activities in 2015 compared with 40% for men.

The article "The value of unpaid childcare and paid employment by gender: What are the impacts of the low-fee universal childcare program?" also shows that after the implementation of the low-fee childcare system in Quebec in 1997, the employment rate of women with children increased faster than in other provinces. The hours worked by mothers with children in Quebec increased 9% from 1998 to 2015 due to the introduction of low-fee childcare, representing a 2.8 billion dollars contribution to GDP.

There was little difference in the impact of the low-cost childcare on the employment rate and the hours worked of mothers between immigrants and native born and between low-income and high-income households. Women in those households all increased employment rates, as the implementation of the low-cost childcare program reduced barriers to childcare access.

These findings suggest that a national low-fee childcare program is expected to increase the employment rate of women and thus increase GDP. An infographic titled "Impact of the low-fee universal childcare program in Quebec, 1998 to 2015" was also released today.

Government-assisted refugees are more likely to stay in their assigned destination compared with 20 years earlier

Two-thirds of government-assisted refugees (GARs) who were assigned to medium-sized census metropolitan areas (CMAs) stayed 10 years after immigration, compared with 39% to 44% of those who were assigned to small CMAs and small urban areas. These rates were similar to those of economic immigrants, whose initial destinations were not assigned by the government.

The article "Retention of government-assisted refugees in designated destinations: Recent trends and the role of destination characteristics" also found that the rate of retention in designated destinations by the end of the first full year after immigration had increased considerably among successive arrival cohorts of GARs since the early 2000s. Furthermore, when GARs left their designated destination, the majority did not move to the three largest gateway CMAs.

Products

The July 2022 issue of Economic and Social Reports, Vol. 2, no. 7 (Catalogue number36280001) is now available. This issue contains the articles "Employer responses to labour shortages," "Retention of government-assisted refugees in designated destinations: Recent trends and the role of destination characteristics," and "The value of unpaid childcare and paid employment by gender: What are the impacts of the low-fee universal childcare program?."

Also released today is an infographic titled "Impact of the low-fee universal childcare program in Quebec, 1998 to 2015," available as part of the series Statistics Canada – Infographics (Catalogue number11-627-M).

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).