Fall update to the Quality of Employment in Canada publication, 2023

Released: 2024-10-15

Today, Statistics Canada released a second set of articles for its Quality of Employment in Canada publication, following those published on July 25, 2024. The articles for the "Collective bargaining coverage rate, 2023," the "Employment rate of mothers and fathers, 2023," "Job tenure, 2023," and "Days not worked due to strikes and lockouts, 2023" have been updated with recent data and include additional insights on the employment situation of racialized groups. This release also includes two new articles on "Sick leave entitlement, 2023" and "Access to managerial occupations, 2023."

First launched in 2022, Quality of Employment in Canada provides insights based on the quality of employment framework of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The framework is organized according to seven dimensions that describe the different ways in which employment relates to well-being. The indicators of the UNECE framework can help monitor changes in the dimensions of quality of employment, and better understand the employment situation of diverse groups.

Nearly two-thirds of employees had access to paid sick leave coverage in their job in 2023

The sick leave entitlement indicator refers to the proportion of employees who have paid sick leave coverage in their main job. According to results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), almost two-thirds (64.0%) of employees in Canada indicated that they had access to paid sick leave in their main job in 2023, up from 59.7% in 2021.

Employees in high-paying and highly skilled jobs tend to have higher rates of paid sick leave coverage. In 2023, management occupations (85.3%) and professional occupations that typically require a university degree (83.6%) had the highest proportions of employees with paid sick leave.

Employees in the public sector also had high rates of access to paid sick leave (84.1%). In particular, nearly 9 in 10 unionized public sector employees (88.5%) had paid sick leave coverage in 2023.

Lower proportions of Métis employees (61.1%) and First Nations employees living off reserve (55.7%) had access to paid sick leave compared with non-Indigenous employees (64.2%).

Non-racialized and non-Indigenous employees most likely to be managers in 2021 

The access to managerial occupations indicator examines how access to management positions varies across diverse groups by examining the proportion of employees aged 35 and older who are managers.

According to data from the 2021 Census of Population, non-racialized and non-Indigenous employees had the highest proportion of employees working in managerial occupations (14.1%), followed by employees belonging to the Korean (13.6%), Japanese (13.5%) and Chinese (13.1%) population groups. Many employees belonging to the Korean population group who were working in managerial occupations were employed in lower-paying industries such as retail trade (20.8%) and accommodation and food services (15.0%).

Chart 1 
Percentage of employees in managerial occupations by racialized group, Canada, 2021

Data from the LFS indicate that the number of managers aged 35 and older across Canada increased from 438,000 in 1987 to 1.1 million in 2023. While the proportion of managers who are women grew from 27.1% to 39.0% over this period, the rise in the proportion of women managers has been entirely due to increases recorded before 2011.

Products

The publication "Quality of Employment in Canada" (Catalogue number14280001) has been updated with six additional articles.

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).