Quality of Employment in Canada
Employability, 2023
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In November 2023, nearly half (49.0%) of paid employees believed that it would be easy for them to find a job of a similar salary if they lost or quit their current job. In comparison, 30.1% of employees felt less secure about their employability, and disagreed that it would be easy to find a job at the same rate of pay if they lost or quit their current one.
Employability measures employees’ self-perceptions of their “labour market value”—or their ability to secure another job of a similar salary. Perceptions of employability can be influenced by work experience and job skills as well as the demand for labour in different industries. For example, workers with less skills and experience may have high perceived employability if they are employed in areas with high rates of labour market churn and more job vacancies.
For the purpose of the analysis, the rate of perceived employability refers to the proportion of employees who agree or strongly agree that it would be easy for them to find a job offering similar wages. This measure differs somewhat from the indicator proposed in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) framework on quality of employment, which refers to the degree to which a worker's experiences and skills are useful for finding another job.
The analysis demonstrates that both job characteristics—including the industry of employment and hourly wages—and worker characteristics—such as age and immigrant status—are associated with variations in employees’ self-perceived employability.
Unless otherwise noted, all analyses are based on data from the November 2023 Labour Force Survey (LFS) supplement and reflect the situation of employees aged 15 to 69.
Historical trends
Statistics Canada data on employability from the LFS supplement are currently available for November 2023.
A recent snapshot
Employees in lower-paying jobs have higher rates of perceived employability
Employees’ perceived employability varies by wage quartile. In November 2023, 54.7% of employees with an hourly wage in the bottom wage quartile agreed that it would be easy for them to find a job offering similar pay. In comparison, the proportion was 47.9% for those in the top wage quartile. Higher rates of perceived employability amongst employees in the lowest wage quartile may partly reflect the higher churn and larger number of job vacancies in lower-paying industries such as accommodation and food services and retail trade.Note
Employability among employees with higher-wage jobs is linked to their level of education
Higher levels of education contribute to employees feeling more secure in their ability to find higher-paying jobs. When limiting the analysis to employees aged 25 to 69—as those aged 15 to 24 are less likely to have completed postsecondary education—the self-perceived employability of employees with higher wages tended to be lower among those with at most a high school diploma. Within the top wage quartile, 40.0% of employees with a high school diploma or less agreed that they could easily find a job of a similar salary, whereas the proportion was 49.3% for those with a bachelor’s degree or a higher level of education.
Employees aged 15 to 24 have the highest rates of perceived employability
Perceived employability varies by age group, and in November 2023, employees aged 15 to 24 tended to have greater confidence in their ability to find a job providing similar levels of pay. Nearly two-thirds (62.9%) of employees in this age group believed it would be easy to find a job of a similar salary if they lost or quit their current job, compared to 48.4% of those aged 25 to 54 and 40.2% of employees aged 55 to 69.
Data table for Chart 1
| Age group | Employable | Neutral | Not easily employable |
|---|---|---|---|
| percent | |||
| Note: Due to rounding, estimates and percentages may differ slightly between different Statistics Canada products, such as analytical documents and data tables.
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (3701), and Labour Market Indicators (5375), November 2023, custom tabulation. |
|||
| 15 to 24 years | 62.9 | 18.9 | 18.2 |
| 25 to 54 years | 48.4 | 21.5 | 30.1 |
| 55 years and over | 40.2 | 20.3 | 39.4 |
When considering the relationship between hourly wages, the age of employees and employability, across the three lowest wage quartiles, employees aged 15 to 24 were more likely than those aged 55 to 69 to agree that they could easily find a job with a similar salary. This perception could be related to other considerations, such as additional barriers experienced by older employees as part of their job search and the transferability of their skills.
Rate of perceived employability among Filipino employees on par with non-racialized employees
In November 2023, half of Filipino employees (50.5%) agreed that they could easily find another similar-paying job if they lost or quit their current one, which was similar to the self-perceived employability rate of non-racialized non-Indigenous employees (52.0%). At the same time, less than 4 in 10 South Asian (37.8%) employees felt they could easily find another similar-paying job if they lost of quit their current one. The higher rate of perceived employability for Filipino Canadians may be related in part to the higher proportion of Filipino employees who have hourly wages in the lowest wage quartile.
Canadian-born employees had higher rates of perceived employability than employees who immigrated to Canada
In November 2023, employees born in Canada had a higher rate of perceived employability than immigrants, no matter the period of time that had passed since they became permanent residents. Over half (52.2%) of employees born in Canada agreed that it would be easy to find a job with a similar salary, compared with 41.0% of employees who had landed up to 5 years earlier, 40.8% of those who had landed between 5 to 10 years earlier, and 41.7% of those who had landed more than 10 years earlier.
Employees in the agriculture, accommodation and food services, and construction industries had among the highest rates of perceived employability
Employees in the agriculture, accommodation and food services, and construction industries had above-average rates of perceived employability. In November 2023, over half of employees in agriculture (59.9%), accommodation and food services (59.7%), and construction (57.2%) agreed that it would be easy to find a job at a similar rate of pay if they lost or quit their current job. In 2023, the job vacancy rate in these industries was higher than the national average.Note The average job vacancy rate was 4.4% in agriculture, 6.8% in accommodation and food services, and 5.1% in construction, compared to 4.1% across all industries.
Part-time employees had higher rates of perceived employability than full-time employees
When considering employment status, employees working part-time (less than 30h per week) had higher rates of perceived employability than full-time employees. In November 2023, nearly 6 in 10 part-time employees (57.5%) agreed that it would be easy to find a job at a similar rate of pay if they lost or quit their current job, compared to under half (47.3%) of those employed full-time. This may be related in part to the industry of employment, as the accommodation and food services industry—which was among the industries with the highest rates of self-perceived employability—also had one of the highest proportions of part-time employees.
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Information on the indicator
Description or definition
The UNECE framework on the quality of employment defines the employability indicator as employees’ self-perceived utility of their skills and experiences to aid in finding another job. The Statistics Canada employability indicator is the percentage of employees who agree or strongly agree that it would be easy for them to find a job of a similar salary if they lost or quit their current job. For the purposes of the current analysis, response categories for employees’ self-perceived employability were operationalized as 1) “agree” or “strongly agree”, 2) “neither agree nor disagree” or 3) “disagree” or “strongly disagree”.
Source
Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, November 2023.
Statistics Canada, Labour Market Indicators, November 2023.
Information for interpretation
For more information on the Labour Force Survey (LFS) methodology and population coverage, please consult the Guide to the Labour Force Survey, 2020.
The November 2023 LFS Supplement was collected as part of the Labour Market Indicators program. The sample consists of households in their 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th month of participation in the LFS and the survey population is limited to those aged 15 to 69 living in the provinces. For more information, see: Labour Market Indicators.
The LFS estimates are based on a sample and are therefore subject to sampling variability. The analysis focuses on differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. Due to rounding, estimates and percentages may differ slightly between different Statistics Canada products, such as analytical documents and data tables.
Industry coding is based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2017.
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