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E1 Transitions to postsecondary education
E2 Transitions to the labour market
E3 Labour market outcomes
E1 Transitions to postsecondary education
Participation in education
Tables E.1.1 and E.1.2
Indicator E1 considers youth transitions from high school to postsecondary education. This first indicator subset uses data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to present participation rates in education for 15- to 29-year-olds in Canada and the provinces (Tables E.1.1 and E.1.2).
Concepts and definitions
The LFS asks respondents about school attendance in the week before the survey, at a “school, college or university.” For those who are students, information is collected on the type of school, and whether enrolment is full- or part-time, as designated by the educational establishment. For this indicator, the participation rate reflects the total enrolment at the primary/secondary, college, or university level as a percentage of the total population in each age group.
Age is collected for every household member in the survey, and the information on labour market activity is collected for all persons aged 15 and over.
Methodology
The LFS is a monthly household survey of a sample of individuals who are representative of the civilian, non-institutionalized population 15 years of age or older. It is conducted nationwide, in both the provinces and the territories. Excluded from the survey’s coverage: persons living on reserves and other Aboriginal settlements in the provinces; full-time members of the Canadian Forces and the institutionalized population. These groups together represent an exclusion of approximately 2% of the population aged 15 and over. Canada-level LFS estimates are derived using the results of the LFS in the provinces. Territorial LFS results are not included in the Canada-level estimates, but are published separately.
Participation rates are presented at the Canada level (excluding the territories) for single ages from 15 through to 29. Rates for the provinces are presented for three age groups: 15 to 19, 20 to 24, and 25 to 29. The LFS participation rate in education is based on a monthly average from September to April.
Limitations
‘Other’ types of education are excluded from the total in Tables E.1.1 and E.1.2 and are not included in the three levels: primary or secondary school; community college, junior college of CEGEP; and university. For the “kind of school” variable, ‘Other - specify’ is an option and includes: English as a second language or French language courses that do not qualify as high school, college or university education; police academies; computer and business skills programs other than those offered by colleges or universities; culinary, hairdressing or bartending schools; and special education that focuses on community living and life skills for students with special needs.
It is unclear where trade certificate programs are placed in the “kind of school” variable. Trade schools could be coded to the ‘community college, junior college or CEGEP group’ or to ‘Other- specify,’ depending on how the respondent answers the question and the interviewer’s interpretation of the answer.
Data source
Labour Force Survey, 1995/1996 and 2005/2006, Statistics Canada.
Moving from high school to postsecondary education
Tables E.1.3 through E.1.5
Indicator E1 considers youth transitions from high school to postsecondary education. The second part of this indicator is based on data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS). High school graduation in 1999 and 2003 is examined based on the two separate cohorts of 19-year-old youths that have been surveyed by YITS. The proportion of youth who move on to postsecondary education and their educational status by the time they reach their early to mid-twenties is also examined. Information is presented for Canada and the provinces.
Concepts and definitions
This indicator is based on data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), a longitudinal survey developed by Human Resources and Social Development Canada and Statistics Canada. YITS surveys two cohorts of youth every two years for a period of time. One cohort entered the survey when they were 15-years-old in 1999 (referred to in YITS as cohort A); a second cohort began their participation in YITS when they were between the ages of 18 and 20 in 1999 (referred to in YITS as cohort B).1 YITS will continue to survey these two cohorts until 2008 for the 18- to 20-year old cohort and until 2014 for the 15-year-old cohort. It is important to note that in each cycle, the cohorts have aged two years.
High school status captures the following three groups: high school continuers—respondents who were continuing their studies at the high school level and who had not yet graduated as of the reference date; high school graduates—respondents who have completed the minimum requirements for a high school graduation certificate, diploma or equivalent are considered to have graduated; and high school dropouts—respondents who had not completed the high school graduation requirements, and were not attending high school as of the reference date.
Postsecondary education is any education beyond the high school level, towards a diploma, certificate or degree that would take someone three months or more to complete. Trade programs offered through apprenticeship, vocational schools or private trade schools do not always require high school graduation. Such education is considered postsecondary.
Postsecondary education status refers to a youth’s overall postsecondary status as of the survey reference date:
Postsecondary graduates—respondents who have graduated from a postsecondary institution (i.e., respondents who have completed the graduation requirements towards a diploma, certificate or degree); includes both graduate continuers and graduate non-continuers. A postsecondary graduate continuer refers to someone who had already graduated from a postsecondary institution and was attending an additional postsecondary program. A postsecondary graduate non-continuer is an individual who had graduated from a postsecondary institution and was not pursuing additional education in a postsecondary institution.
Postsecondary continuers refer to individuals who were attending a postsecondary education institution but had not yet graduated.
Postsecondary dropouts are those who had undertaken a postsecondary education but were no longer pursuing it and had never graduated from a postsecondary education institution.
A high school dropout, no postsecondary education is an individual who had dropped out of high school and had never pursued a postsecondary education.
High school graduate, no postsecondary education refers to a high school graduate who has never attempted postsecondary education.
Individuals who had some postsecondary education (Table E.1.5) refer to those who had ever attended some form of postsecondary education without obtaining a certificate/diploma/degree.
Methodology
The target population for the older YITS cohort (i.e., cohort B) comprises residents of the 10 provinces of Canada who were born in 1979 to 1981. These individuals were 18- to 20-years-old during 1999, the reference year for cycle 1, and were between the ages of 22 and 24 during 2003, the reference year for cycle 3.
The sample design of cohort B was determined to a large degree by the sample design of the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As is the case with the LFS, this cohort excludes residents of Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories, persons living on Indian Reserves, full-time members of the Canadian Forces and inmates of institutions. These groups together represent an exclusion of approximately 2% of the population aged 15 and over, in the LFS.
The target population for cohort A comprises persons who were born in 1984 and in the 1999/2000 school year were attending any form of schooling in the provinces of Canada. These individuals were 15-years-old in 1999 (in cycle 1) and 19 years of age during 2003, the reference year for cycle 3. The sample for this cohort was school-based, with schools selected in the first stage of sampling, and students selected from these schools in the second stage of sampling. Schools in the northern territories and on Indian reserves were excluded. Some school- and student-level exclusions were made in the sampling. However, exclusions of all types represented in total, less than 5 % of the national desired target population.
YITS is strictly a longitudinal survey. The initial samples of 15-year-olds and 18- to 20-year-olds selected at Cycle 1 will continue to be surveyed every two years for a number of cycles. As part of the YITS survey methodology, no attempts are made to top-up the samples from cycle-to-cycle to ensure a cross-sectional representation of these populations. Furthermore, YITS loses some of its existing sample with each survey cycle because non-respondents at a specific survey are not followed up for subsequent cycles of the survey.
The implications of these factors for the two cohorts of 19-year olds examined in PCEIP 2007 (Table E.1.3) are as follows. For those who were 19-years-old in 1999 (i.e., a subset of cohort B), the data used are from the first cycle of YITS and are representative of Canadian youth who were 19 as of December 1999. For those who were 19-years-old in 2003 (cohort A), the data are used from the third cycle of YITS. In the first cycle, cohort A was representative of Canadian youth who were 15-years-old as of December 1999, but the results from the third cycle of cohort A may not be representative of 19-year-old Canadian youth in December 2003.
Because cohort A and cohort B were sampled differently and because YITS loses some of its sample after cycle 1, a direct comparison of the educational profile of these two samples of 19-year-olds can only be made with caution.
This indicator also examines the educational status of cohort B in 2003—the time when they were between the ages of 22 and 24. It is important to note that the statistics presented for the 22- to 24-year olds (Tables E.1.4 and E.1.5) are representative of individuals aged 18 to 20 by the end of 1999 who were residents in Canada.
In Tables E.1.3 through E.1.5, as in all other tables in the 2007 PCEIP Report, the symbol “E” (use with caution) indicates a coefficient of variation (CV) between 16.6% and 33.3%.
Limitations
A direct comparison of the educational profile of these two samples of 19-year-olds can only be made with caution (see methodology section for more details).
The statistics presented for the 22- to 24-year olds (Tables E.1.4 and E.1.5) are representative of individuals aged 18 to 20 by the end of 1999 who were residents in Canada (see methodology section for more details).
Some Canada totals (in Tables E.1.4 and E.1.5) include those respondents who lived in the territories at time of interview, but data for the territories are not shown separately as there are only a few cases.
Indicators of data quality are provided in the tables. Estimated population characteristics with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 16.5% or less are considered to be of good quality; therefore, no special notation has been provided. Estimates with CVs in the range of 16.6% and 33.3%, indicating a higher level of measurement error, are marked with the letter E. As per Statistics Canada guidelines, they are accompanied by a warning to caution users about the higher levels of error associated with the estimates. As Statistics Canada guidelines recommend not to release estimates of unacceptable quality, estimates with CVs in excess of 33.3% are blocked out with the letter F. Typically, higher levels of measurement error are associated with the analysis of rare characteristics in a population subgroup or for any characteristic within small subgroups.
Data source
Youth in Transition Survey, Cycle 1 and Cycle 3 (for cohort B) and Cycle 3 (for cohort A), Statistics Canada.
Endnote
- The younger cohort also participated in the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) when they were 15 years old in Cycle 1. PISA is an international assessment run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development designed to assess the literacy skills of youth in reading, mathematics and science. PCEIP 2007 does not concern itself with the PISA findings for this cohort.
E2 Transitions to the labour market
Students and work
Tables E.2.1 through E.2.4
Indicator E2, which covers the transition from postsecondary education to the labour market, has four subsets. The first indicator subset uses Labour Force Survey (LFS) data to look at the extent to which students aged 15 to 29 combine school and work (Tables E.2.1 and E.2.2) , and at the distribution of this population group by education level, labour force status and age group(s) (Tables E.2.3 and E.2.4).
Concepts and definitions
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) asks respondents about school attendance in the week before the survey, at a “school, college or university,” in addition to labour force participation information. Persons who are supplying services in the reference period, regardless of the quantity supplied, are classified as employed, while those who provide evidence that they are offering their labour services to the market (again regardless of quantity) are classified as unemployed. The remainder of the population, those neither currently supplying nor offering their labour services, are referred to as persons not in the labour force.
Employed persons are those who: during the reference week, did any work at all at a job or business; that is, paid work in the context of an employer-employee relationship, or self-employment. It also includes unpaid family work, which is defined as unpaid work contributing directly to the operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned and operated by a related member of the same household; or had a job but were not at work due to factors such as own illness or disability, personal or family responsibilities, vacation, labour dispute or other reasons (excluding persons on layoff, between casual jobs, and those with a job to start at a future date).
Given the concept of unemployment as the unutilized supply of labour, the operational definition of unemployment is based primarily on the activity of job search and the availability to take a job. In addition to being conceptually appropriate, job search activities can, in a household survey, be objectively and consistently measured over time. The definition of unemployed persons is therefore those who, during the reference week:
were on temporary layoff during the reference week with an expectation of recall and were available for work, or
were without work, had actively looked for work in the past four weeks, and were available for work, or
had a new job to start within four weeks from reference week, and were available for work.
Persons are regarded as available if they reported that they could have worked in the reference week if a suitable job had been offered (or recalled if on temporary layoff), or if the reason they could not take a job was of a temporary nature such as: own illness or disability, personal or family responsibilities; they already had a job to start in the near future; or they were on vacation (prior to 1997, those on vacation were not considered available). Full-time students currently attending school and looking for full-time work are not considered to be available for work during the reference week. They are assumed to be looking for a summer or co-op job or permanent job to start sometime in the future, and are therefore not part of the current labour supply.
Age is collected for every household member in the survey, and the information on labour market activity is collected for all persons aged 15 and over. For this indicator, those aged 15 to 29 are examined.
Labour force status designates the status of the respondent vis-à-vis the labour market: a member of the non-institutional population 15 years of age and over is either employed, unemployed, or not in the labour force.
Methodology
Proportion of students working and distribution of the population by education level and labour force status data are presented at the Canada level for single ages from 15 through to 29, as well as a total 15 to 29 in Tables E.2.1 and E.2.3. Comparable data for the provinces are presented for three age groups: 15 to 19, 20 to 24, and 25 to 29, with a total 15 to 29 in Tables E.2.3 and E.2.4. The LFS participation rate in education is based on a monthly average from September to April.
In Tables E.2.3 and E.2.4, education level and labour force status are broken up into: non-student not in the labour force, non-student unemployed, non-student employed, university employed, university not in the labour force, college employed, college not in the labour force, primary/secondary employed, primary/secondary not in the labour force and other.
The other category includes unemployed students attending university, college, primary or secondary schools and students attending other kinds of schools.
The concepts of employment and unemployment are derived from the theory of the supply of labour as a factor of production and are based on those endorsed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The production referred to is in turn defined as those goods and services included in the System of National Accounts. For this reason, unpaid housework and volunteer work are not counted as work by the survey.
For the purposes of measuring job search as part of the identification of the unemployed, the LFS uses a four-week search period although the reference period for identifying the employed is that of one week. The justification for the difference is that delays inherent in job search (for example, periods spent awaiting the results of earlier job applications) require that the active element of looking for work be measured over a period greater than one week if a comprehensive measure of job search is to be obtained.
Limitations
Most industrialized countries, including Canada and the United States, subscribe to guidelines established by the International Labour Office for defining and measuring labour market status, including unemployment. However, the guidelines are, by design, rather imprecise, so that individual countries can interpret them within the context of their own labour markets. As a result, unemployment rates are not strictly comparable across all countries. The LFS has investigated in detail the measurement differences between the US and Canadian unemployment rates. The results show that measurement differences account for about a fifth of the gap between the US and Canada unemployment rates.
Data source
Labour Force Survey, 1995/1996 and 2005/2006, Statistics Canada.
University/College graduates working full-time
Tables E.2.5 through E.2.7
As part of Indicator E2 (the transition from postsecondary education to the labour market), this second subset examines full-time employment among postsecondary graduates. The National Graduates Survey and the Follow-up of Graduates Survey are used to present the percentages of 1995 and 2000 university/college graduates with full-time work two and five years after graduation, by level of education and province of study (Table E.2.5), and by sex and field of study (Tables E.2.6 and E.2.7).
Concepts and definitions
Working full-time includes working at least 30 hours a week in a given job the week before the interview two and five years after graduation.
Graduates from the postsecondary level are students who completed the requirements for degrees, diplomas or certificates from university, college or other postsecondary programs during the calendar year of their graduation. Only graduates from public postsecondary institutions are included.
Full-time employment rates are presented for the following fields of study in which the graduate obtained his/her diploma, degree or certificate: personal improvement and leisure; education; visual and performing arts, and communications technologies; humanities; social and behavioural sciences, and law; business, management and public administration; physical and life sciences, and technologies; mathematics, computer and information sciences; architecture, engineering and related technologies; agriculture, natural resources and conservation; health, parks, recreation and fitness; personal, protective and transportation services; and other.
Methodology
The data for this second subset of Indicator E2 are based on the National Graduates Survey (NGS) and the Follow-up Survey of Graduates (FOG). Each graduating class is interviewed twice: two years after graduation (NGS) and five years after graduation (FOG). The sample design was developed using a “funnel-shaped” approach, where only graduates that respond to the initial interview are traced for the follow-up interview.
The NGS target population comprises graduates from Canadian public postsecondary education institutions (universities, colleges, trade schools) who graduated or completed the requirements for degrees, diplomas or certificates during the reference calendar year.
To obtain the percentage of graduates working full-time, the number of university or college graduates working full-time was divided by the total number of university or college graduates and multiplied by 100.
Limitations
Excluded from the National Graduates Survey (NGS) are: graduates from private postsecondary education institutions; completers of continuing-education programs (unless these led to a degree, diploma or certificate); part-time trade course completers; persons who completed vocational programs lasting less than three months; persons who completed vocational programs other than in the skilled trades (e.g. basic training and skill development); completers of provincial apprenticeship programs and those living outside of Canada or the United States at the time of the survey.
Data sources
National Graduates Survey, Follow-up of Graduates Survey, 1995 and 2000 graduates, Statistics Canada.
Earnings two and five years after university/college graduation
Tables E.2.8 through E.2.11
This third subset of Indicator E2 (the transition from postsecondary education to the labour market) presents data on earnings for 1995 and 2000 university/college graduates employed full-time. Median earnings and the distribution of earnings, both two and five years after graduation, are presented by level of education, province of study, sex, and field of study (Tables E.2.8 through E.2.11). The information was collected as part of the National Graduates Survey (NGS) and the Follow-up of Graduates Survey (FOG).
Concepts and definitions
Median earnings are the estimated annual median earnings of the job held the week before the interview two and five years after graduation. The median earnings are presented for two levels of education: college and university graduates (Tables E.2.8 and E.2.9).
Earnings are further broken down by the following fields of study: personal improvement and leisure; education; visual and performing arts, and communications technologies; humanities; social and behavioural sciences, and law; business, management and public administration; physical and life sciences, and technologies; mathematics, computer and information sciences; architecture, engineering and related technologies; agriculture, natural resources and conservation; health, parks recreation and fitness; personal, protective and transportation services; and other.
Percentile refers to values that divide a set of observations into 100 equal parts.
Constant dollars are derived by applying a price deflator to convert earnings or expenditures displayed in a time series to a price level that existed at a certain point in time (the base year). Constant dollars eliminate the changes in the purchasing power of the dollar over time. The result is a series as it would exist if the dollar had a purchasing power equal to the purchasing power in the base year.
Methodology
The data for this third subset of Indicator E2 are based on the National Graduates Survey (NGS) and the Follow-up Survey of Graduates (FOG). Each graduating class is interviewed twice: two years after graduation (NGS) and five years after graduation (FOG). The sample design was developed using a “funnel-shaped” approach, where only graduates that respond to the initial interview are traced for the follow-up interview.
The NGS target population comprises graduates from Canadian public postsecondary education institutions (universities, colleges, trade schools) who graduated or completed the requirements for degrees, diplomas or certificates during the reference calendar year.
Limitations
The National Graduates Survey (NGS) does not include: graduates from private postsecondary education institutions; completers of continuing-education programs (unless these led to a degree, diploma or certificate); part-time trade course completers; persons who completed vocational programs lasting less than three months; persons who completed vocational programs other than in the skilled trades (e.g. basic training and skill development); completers of provincial apprenticeship programs and those living outside of Canada or the United States at the time of the survey.
Data sources
National Graduates Survey, Follow-up of Graduates Survey, 1995 and 2000 graduates, Statistics Canada.
Mobility of university/college graduates
Tables E.2.12 and E.2.13
This fourth and final subset of Indicator E2, part of the transition from postsecondary education to the labour market, focuses on the migration characteristics of 1995 and 2000 university and college graduates—before enrolling and two years after graduation (Tables E.2.12 and E.2.13). This information, from the National Graduates Survey (NGS), is presented for Canada and the jurisdictions.
Concepts and definitions
The rate of out (in) migration to study is defined as the number of graduates who left (entered) a jurisdiction to pursue studies, as a percentage of the number of graduates by jurisdiction of residence prior to enrolment. It is used as a measure of “student mobility”.
The rate of out (in) migration after graduation is defined as the number of graduates who left (entered) a jurisdiction two years after graduation, as a percentage of the number of graduates of the jurisdiction. It is used as a measure of “graduate mobility”.
Net overall migration is defined as the difference between the number of graduates per jurisdiction based on residence two years after graduation versus residence one year before enrolment, as a percentage of the number of graduates per jurisdiction based on residence on year before enrolment.
The residence before enrolling is the province or territory of residence of respondents one year prior to enrolling in the program from which they graduated in the reference year.
Residence at graduation is the province or territory of the institution from which respondents graduated in the reference year.
Residence two years after graduation is the province or territory of residence of the respondents at the time of the interview, two years after graduation in the reference year.
A coefficient of variation (CV) provides a measure of the reliability of the estimate, taking into account sampling variability. In order to estimate whether the difference between two values is statistically significant, the following formula can be applied to approximate a 95% confidence interval:
Y ± 2 (CV x Y)/100, where Y is the estimate
This approximate confidence interval gives a range within which the true value in the population is likely to fall. If two confidence intervals do not overlap, then the difference between the two estimates is statistically significant. It should be noted that this formula is approximate because it estimates a confidence interval that is slightly higher than the 95% level of confidence.
Methodology
The data for this fourth and final subset of Indicator E2 are based on the National Graduates Survey (NGS); each graduating class is interviewed two years after graduation. The sample design was developed using a “funnel-shaped” approach, where only graduates that respond to the initial interview are traced for the follow-up interview.
The NGS target population comprises graduates from Canadian public postsecondary education institutions (universities, colleges, trade schools) who graduated or completed the requirements for degrees, diplomas or certificates during the reference calendar year.
Limitations
Excluded from the National Graduates Survey (NGS) are: graduates from private postsecondary education institutions; completers of continuing-education programs (unless these led to a degree, diploma or certificate); part-time trade course completers; persons who completed vocational programs lasting less than three months; persons who completed vocational programs other than in the skilled trades (e.g. basic training and skill development); completers of provincial apprenticeship programs and those living outside of Canada or the United States at the time of the survey.
Data source
National Graduates Survey, 1995 and 2000 graduates, Statistics Canada.
E3 Labour market outcomes
Unemployment rates
Tables E.3.1 through E.3.3
This first indicator subset of Indicator E3 presents recent and historical Labour Force Survey (LFS) data on unemployment rates by level of education. Information on trends at the Canada level covers the population aged 15 and over (Table E.3.1), and a 1996-versus-2006 comparison looks at 25- to 29-year-olds in Canada and the provinces (Table E.3.2). Recent data on employment rates among the off-reserve Aboriginal population in Western Canada are also presented (Table E.3.3).
Concepts and definitions
According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the unemployment rate refers to the number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force. The unemployment rate for a particular group (level of education, for example) is the number unemployed in that group expressed as a percentage of the labour force for that group. Unemployed people are those who, during the LFS reference week, were available for work and were either on temporary layoff, had looked for work in the past four weeks, or had a job to start within the next four weeks.
Unemployment rates are presented for the following levels of education: all levels; less than high school; high school graduate; college or trade; and university graduate.
Less than high school includes individuals having no education or education below high school graduation. High school graduate includes high school graduates and individuals who have some postsecondary education (not completed). College or trade includes individuals with trade certificate or diploma from a vocational school or apprenticeship training; non-university certificate or diploma from a community college, CEGEP, school of nursing and similar programs at this level; university certificate below bachelor’s level. Finally, university graduate includes individuals with bachelor’s degree or university degree/certificate above bachelor’s level.
The Aboriginal population refers to those persons in Western Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia) who reported identifying with at least one Aboriginal group; i.e., North American Indian, Métis or Inuit. This LFS definition is based on the individual’s own perception of his/her Aboriginal identity, similar to the concept used in the Census of Population.
Methodology
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) unemployment rate is based on a monthly average from January to December. For the 2004 data in Table E3.3 on the unemployment rate of the off-reserve Aboriginal identity population in Western Canada, the monthly average is from April to December.
Starting in late 2003 in Alberta, and then in April 2004 for the rest of Western Canada, the LFS added questions to identify Aboriginal respondents living off-reserve with the goal of producing provincial labour market statistics on the Aboriginal population. In 2004, these questions were also asked in the territories, and, as of January 2007, it was extended to all provinces.
The sample for the Yukon and Northwest Territories is designed to be representative of the working-age population of each territory. Nunavut, on the other hand, has been designed to cover 10 of the largest communities in the region, representing about 70% of all Nunavut residents 15 years of age and over.
In order to obtain a representative sample of the target population for each territory, the sample for three consecutive months are added. For this reason, estimates for the North are only available as three-month moving averages.
There are four levels of educational attainment in the PCEIP tables based on LFS data (Tables E.3.1 through E.3.3): less than high school; high school graduate; college or trade; and university graduate. The category of college or trade also includes apprenticeship training and university certificate below bachelor’s level. University graduates include those with at least a bachelor’s degree. By contrast, the PCEIP tables based on census data present college and trades as two separate levels (Tables E.3.4 and E.3.6). The category of university includes individuals with a university degree or certificate both below and above bachelor’s level.
The unemployment rates for the population aged 15 and over are presented for Canada, by level of education, from 1990 through to 2006. However, the LFS data for 1995 to 1998 have been revised and are slightly different from those previously published in the Education indicators in Canada: Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program 2005.
Limitations
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) excludes: persons living on reserves and other Aboriginal settlements in the provinces; full-time members of the Canadian Forces and the institutionalized population. These groups together represent an exclusion of approximately 2% of the population aged 15 and over. The territories are excluded from the Canada total because the Labour Force Surveys conducted in the North are extended pilot projects. Difficulties exist with respect to reaching small communities in the territories, and as a result even within the pilot projects there are areas of the territories that are excluded. As well, since the sample design, rotation pattern and reliability criteria are different from those in the ten provinces, estimates for the territories are not included with the provincial totals, but rather they are calculated and reported separately as a part of each of the extended projects.
The LFS also excludes residents of institutions (for example, inmates of penal institutions and patients in hospitals or nursing homes who have resided in the institution for more than six months) for conceptual reasons; the LFS is designed to measure the labour force participation in the current labour market. Residents of institutions are for the most part not able to participate in the labour market and are not economically active. There would also be difficulties associated with the practical implications of sampling and interviewing residents of institutions (for example, access within prisons or interviewing people who are very ill) that would make their inclusion operationally problematic.
There would also be practical difficulties associated with sampling and interviewing full-time members of the armed forces, since many of these persons live in locations that are not accessible for the purposes of conducting the LFS, such as naval vessels, military camps and barracks. While not included in the LFS, the monthly numbers of employed full-time members of the Canadian Forces are available from other administrative sources, such as the Department of National Defence.
Indian reserves have historically been excluded from the LFS due to the serious challenges in contacting and interviewing potential respondents, with many of them living in remote locations not easily accessible to LFS interviewers given the short data collection period each month, and the large effort and cost associated with traveling to these locations.
Data source
Labour Force Survey, 1990 through 2006, Statistics Canada.
Earnings, Canada and international
Tables E.3.4 through E.3.6
This second indicator subset of Indicator E3 explores the impact of educational attainment on earnings. Census data for the Canada level are used to examine the distribution of earners and average employment income (Tables E.3.4 and E.3.6). An international perspective presents the relative earnings of employed 25- to 64-year-olds in selected OECD countries (Table E.3.5).
Concepts and definitions
Earnings/Employment income refers to total income received as wages and salaries, net income from a non-farm unincorporated business and/or professional practice, and/or net farm self-employment income.
The distribution of earnings by educational attainment is presented for the following levels of earnings: < $20,000; $20,000 to < $40,000; $40,000 to < $60,000; $80,000 to < $100,000; and $100,000 or more.
Educational attainment measures an individual’s highest level of completed schooling, and is sometimes used as a proxy for human capital. For comparisons using census data (Tables E.3.4 and E.3.6), it is classified as:
less than high school - includes individuals having no education, or education below high school graduation;
high school - includes high school graduates and individuals who have some postsecondary education (not completed);
trades - graduates of trade-vocational programs;
college - graduates of community colleges, CEGEP, schools of nursing and similar programs at this level); and
university - includes individuals with a university degree or certificate (below or above bachelor’s degree).
For the purpose of international comparison, educational attainment (Table E.3.5) was categorized into: below high school, college, university, and college or university, while the category of high school and trade-vocational education was used as the benchmark for comparison. This is to reflect the educational attainment classified according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 97) in Education at a Glance (OECD, 2006: 135) Table A9.1a:
Below high school - ISCED 0, 1, 2 (below upper secondary education);
High school and trade-vocational education - ISCED 3, 4 (upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education);
College - ISCED 5B (tertiary-type B education); and
University - ISCED 5A/6 (tertiary-type A and advanced research programmes).
Average employment income by educational level is presented for the following 10 five-year age groups: 15 to 19; 20 to 24; 25 to 29; 30 to 34; 35 to 39; 40 to 44; 45 to 49; 50 to 54; 55 to 59; and 60 to 64. An overall figure is also presented.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a multidisciplinary international body made up of 30 member countries that offers a structure/forum for governments to consult and co-operate with each other to develop and refine economic and social policy. This indicator presents data from 6 OECD countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Methodology
Question 51 of the 2001 Census asked those who were 15 years of age and over (excluding institutional residents) about their income received during the calendar year of 2000 from the sources of paid employment (wages and salaries) and self employment (net farm income and net non-farm income from unincorporated business and/or professional practice). Earnings or employment income in Tables E.3.4 and E.3.6 refers to these two sources of income.
The 2001 Census definition of average employment income refers to the weighted mean total employment income of individuals 15 years of age and over who reported income for 2000. Average income is calculated from unrounded data by dividing the aggregate income of a specified group of individuals (e.g., males 45 to 54 years of age) by the number of individuals with income in that group. Note that the words “mean” and “average” were used interchangeably in the text and tables in this indicator.
For Table E.3.5, which uses data from the OECD, relative earnings from employment are defined as the mean earnings (income from work before taxes) of persons at a given level of educational attainment divided by the mean earnings of persons with high school or trade-vocational diplomas. This ratio is then multiplied by 100. The earnings estimates generally cover the full reporting year for all persons with earnings from employment during that period.
Limitations
The source of Table E.3.5 is the 2006 Education at Glance. The data that Canada submits to the OECD are from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID). On the other hand, Tables E.3.4 and E.3.6 are based on the 2001 Census. With regard to the collection of information on the employment income, the two sources differed in terms of coverage and sample size.
The target population of SLID consists of all persons living in Canada, but excludes the following groups of people: residents of the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, residents of institutions and persons living on Indian reserves, and military personnel living in barracks. Overall, these exclusions amount to less than 3% of the population. The samples of SLID are selected from the monthly Labour Force Survey and thus share the LFS sample design. The SLID samples are composed of two panels. Each panel consists of two LFS rotation groups and includes roughly 15,000 households. Demographic information was collected for every member of the household while data on employment income, education and labour were collected for persons aged 16 and over in the household.
On the other hand, however, the 2001 Census provides complete coverage of the Canadian population, including households of diplomatic personnel and other Canadian government employees living outside Canada. It also includes persons living the three Territories. In most parts of Canada, every fifth household receives the long census form (2B), which contains the questions from which employment income data are derived. On Indian reserves and in northern and remote areas, all households receive the long census form to improve the precision of the data on populations that are considered too small to be sampled.
Data sources
Census of Population, 2001, Statistics Canada.
Education at a Glance, 2006 edition, (Table A9.1a), OECD Publishing, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.
