Ontario-US power outage: Impact on hours worked

by G. Bowlby*

An estimated 2.4 million workers in Ontario and Gatineau, Que., lost 26.4 million hours of work time in the second half of August because of the Ontario-US power outage and subsequent conservation period. This amounted to over one in three workers. At the same time, an estimated 713,000 people, or 11.0% of workers, put in a total of 7.5 million overtime hours. The net effect was a loss of 18.9 million hours, about 4% of a normal month’s work.

There was a net loss in all industries, except for utilities, farm and municipal government workers. In some, the net loss was very large. A total of 3.6 million of the 18.9 million hours lost were at the federal or provincial level. About six in 10 federal and over four in 10 provincial government workers lost work hours in the second half of August because of the outage or conservation period. While some also worked overtime, the net effect was a loss of 16 hours per federal employee and 12 hours per provincial worker.

Figure 1

A significant share of factory workers also lost time in August. One-half of all people working in manufacturing were absent because of the blackout. Helping offset this, power outage-related overtime was relatively common in manufacturing, with 17.1% putting in extra hours, but the net loss of hours was still 3.7 million hours.

In utilities, 122,000 hours were added to workers schedules as a result of the power outage. While 17.2% of utilities workers lost some work time, 18.9% worked some overtime. Furthermore, the overtime was long for utilities workers. The average overtime worker in utilities put in 19.4 hours in the second half of August, more than any other industry.

Overtime was also common in municipal government, where 16.6% of workers put in long hours because of the outage, second only to utilities. Included in municipal government are many essential services such as police, fire and ambulance.

The only other industry with a positive net effect on hours was agriculture. Only 4.9% of people employed in farming lost work time, but 13.1% worked longer hours because of the blackout.

Table 1: Total lost work due to Ontario-US power outage

Table 2: Total work gained due to Ontario-US power outage

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Notes

* Labour Statistics Division (613) 951-3325.

Data for this release were derived from questions added to the September Labour Force Survey (LFS). Special questions were required to estimate the impact on hours worked of the power outage that started on August 14 and subsequent conservation period during the following week. The LFS normally only measures hours worked during one week of the month, the survey reference week. In August, the reference week was the week of the 10th to the 16th. Since the impact of the power outage extended beyond that week, the additional questions were asked in September. In reference to the second half of August, four questions were asked of a sample of September LFS respondents in Ontario and Gatineau, Que., from which a large number of people commute to the Ottawa region to work). Together, these questions determine, as result of the power outage and conservation, how many people lost work time, and how many hours they lost, the number of people who worked overtime and the amount of overtime they put in. The impact on hours worked allows for some measurement of the overall economic impact of the Ontario-US power outage.

For general information or to order data, contact Client Services (1-866-873-8788; 613-951-4090; fax: 613-951-2869; labour@statcan.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality, contact Geoff Bowlby (613-951-3325; geoff.bowlby@statcan.ca).