January 2026
Spotlight on data and research
Potential occupational exposure to artificial intelligence and automation among certified journeypersons in Canada
Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation hold the potential to transform the nature of work, raising concerns about disruption across occupations. In May 2025, journeypersons—e.g., plumbers, carpenters, and welders—represented over 1 million employees or 6% of all employees aged 18 and older in Canada. This article found that journeyperson occupations may face lower exposure to AI-related job transformation relative to other occupations because they tend to be more labour intensive. However, they could potentially face a higher risk of automation because of the repetitive nature of some tasks.
Indigenous employment and income in Indigenous-owned businesses: A comparative analysis
This article fills an important data gap by linking business ownership information with employee characteristics to provide a novel analysis of Indigenous employment within Indigenous-owned and non-Indigenous-owned businesses. Across all sectors, regions and firm sizes, Indigenous-owned businesses employ substantially higher shares of Indigenous workers than non-Indigenous-owned businesses. For example, Indigenous employees represent 24.8% of workers in Indigenous-owned businesses in the construction sector, compared with 4.3% in non-Indigenous-owned businesses, and 16.0% versus 2.6% in manufacturing. Indigenous employees also earn more in Indigenous-owned businesses in nearly every sector, with income gaps exceeding 25% in 8 of the 13 sectors.
Research article
Canadian employment trends in the era of generative artificial intelligence: Early evidence
Since the widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence (AI), marked by the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, employment generally grew regardless of potential occupational exposure to and complementarity with AI. This article found that from November 2022 to December 2025, jobs potentially more exposed to and less complementary with AI (e.g., coders, accountants, and financial analysts just to name a few) grew by 10% for men and 5% for women—growth rates which were not substantially different from other occupations. Over the same period, employees aged 30 to 49 and employees with a bachelor’s degree or above saw job gains in the 10% to 20% range while younger employees and less educated employees (with the exception of those with a trades certificate or diploma) saw gains of 5% or less. However, similar trends were observed prior to the mass availability of generative AI tools.
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