Economic and Social Reports, March 2026

Released: 2026-03-25

There are four new articles available in today's release of Economic and Social Reports.

Measuring Canada's economic performance relative to the United States

Canada's economic performance has not kept pace with that of the United States, given the speed at which US businesses invest in new technologies and production processes, effectively raising living standards. In light of the strong linkages between the Canadian and US economies, a comparison of key economic indicators provides insights into changes in relative living standards between the two countries.

In the article "Measuring Canada's economic performance relative to the United States," three common aggregate measures are used to evaluate economic performance from 1997 to 2025: labour productivity, real gross domestic product per capita and real gross national income per capita.

Regardless of the measure selected, Canada's economic performance has lagged compared with the United States from 1997 to 2025. Canada's dependence on small firms, weaker investment in information and communications technology, and lower investment in intangible assets have all contributed to relative declines.

Jobs in selected cultural industries are potentially more exposed to generative artificial intelligence technologies

Artificial intelligence (AI) could transform jobs in cultural industries by either replacing human labour in content creation, or by complementing and augmenting human creative processes. The article "Potential occupational exposure to artificial intelligence across selected cultural industries in Canada" examines the potential impact of AI on employment in selected cultural industries: video game publishers and video game design and development services, publishing industries (except video game publishers), sound recording industries and musical groups and artists, and motion picture and video industries. The article revealed that more than 50% of jobs in these industries could be highly exposed to and less complementary with AI technologies, which suggests a relatively higher potential for AI substitution. This compares with less than 45% of jobs in other sectors of the economy.

However, more than 30% of jobs in the selected cultural industries could potentially be highly exposed to and highly complementary with AI technologies, which suggests the potential for AI augmentation rather than substitution. By contrast, about 25% of jobs may fall into this category in other sectors of the economy.

While there is considerable uncertainty regarding the pace of development and scale of adoption of AI, this study underscores that the transformative potential of AI—both through substitution and augmentation—could be relatively greater in cultural industries. These findings offer valuable insights into how technological change may reshape employment in cultural industries, which are important segments of the Canadian economy.

About 7% to 8% of youth in their 20s do not work, attend school or provide care for others throughout a given year

The NEET (not in employment, education or training) measure is a popular approach to identify youth who, at a point in time, may be at risk for economic and social difficulties. The article "The NEETEST youth: Not in employment, education or training, excluding short transitions" develops and applies a new complementary indicator that focuses on a longer period and acknowledges unpaid caregiving as a productive activity. Youth are considered not in employment, education or training, excluding short transitions (NEETEST) if they were NEET for a full year (excluding unpaid caregiving).

The article found that, in every year from 2017 to 2022, about 7% to 8% of youth aged 20 to 29 years were NEETEST. In comparison, the NEET rate for these youth was about 13% to 14% during this period, except during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it peaked at 19% in 2020 (likely because the NEET indicator is measured at a point in time).

From 2017 to 2022, compared with NEET youth, NEETEST youth were relatively more concentrated among women, older youth, individuals with no postsecondary education, youth from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and youth outside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations.

The NEETEST measure provides a complementary view of the employment and educational activities of potentially marginalized youth. Future work could inform on the determinants and long-term implications of experiencing NEETEST.

Canadian-born families have more wealth than recent immigrant families, but less than established immigrant families

The wealth that immigrants accumulate after coming to Canada is a long-term indicator of their socioeconomic mobility and well-being. The study "Trends in the wealth gap between immigrant and Canadian-born families from 2016 to 2023" examines how the recency of immigration to Canada contributes to differences in wealth between immigrants and Canadian-born people, and whether recent immigrants were doing better in 2023 than in 2016.

The median net worth of recent immigrant families (those who have been in Canada less than 10 years) was $132,300 in 2023, up from $77,500 in 2016 in constant 2023 dollars. Despite increasing their wealth over this period, recent immigrant families did not gain ground relative to Canadian-born families. In 2023, the net worth of recent immigrant families was less than half as much as that of Canadian-born families at a comparable stage in their lives ($293,900).

By contrast, established immigrant families had greater wealth than Canadian-born families and increased their advantage from 2016 to 2023. The median net worth of established immigrant families was $751,500 in 2023, which was $143,000 more wealth than that of Canadian-born families at a comparable stage in their lives. In 2016, established immigrant families had a net worth of $593,400 in 2023 dollars, which was $52,000 more than Canadian-born families.

Products

The March 2026 issue of Economic and Social Reports, Vol. 6, no. 03 (Catalogue number36280001), is now available. This issue contains the articles "Measuring Canada's economic performance relative to the United States," "Potential occupational exposure to artificial intelligence across selected cultural industries in Canada," "The NEETEST youth: Not in employment, education or training, excluding short transitions" and "Trends in the wealth gap between immigrant and Canadian-born families from 2016 to 2023."

Contact information

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