The Impact of the Manufacturing Decline on Local Labour Markets in Canada

From the early 2000s to the mid-2010s, the number of employees in manufacturing fell by roughly half a million in Canada. During that period, the percentage of Canadian men aged 21 to 55 employed mainly full time for at least 48 weeks in a given year fell by 5 percentage points, from 63.6% in 2000 to 58.6% in 2015. This study investigates whether the two trends are connected, i.e., whether the decline in manufacturing employment caused a decline in employment rates and wages among men.