How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the hours worked in Canada? An analysis by industry, province, and firm size

Around the world, one critical response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the implementation of physical distancing measures. These policies, which are necessary to contain the spread of the virus, have had serious consequences on the organization of work. This study used the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which makes it possible to compare the estimates of the hours worked in an employee’s main job in 2020 with the 2017-to-2019 average of hours worked (hereafter referred to as the “baseline”). The main contribution of the article is that it provides estimates of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic not only by industry and province but also by firm size, which is an important dimension more rarely discussed.