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Advancements in technology are changing today's work environment at an ever-increasing pace. Nevertheless, Canadian organizations recognize the ongoing need for the œhuman touch and are taking steps to ensure they have employees with the necessary skills and attributes. Based on a survey of 95 leading Canadian employers, Navigating Change: 2018 Business Council Skills Survey examines the shifting nature of the Canadian labour market. Respondents--HR executives at Canada's largest companies--were asked to reflect on major challenges and opportunities in finding, training and retaining talent. This report does not attempt to quantify the overall impact of innovation on jobs, but to understand how Canadian businesses are responding to this and other trends. Major takeaways from the survey include: 1 Technology will change, not destroy, jobs 2 Employers have high and rising expectation of new grads 3 Businesses are creating diverse partnerships with post-secondary institutions 4 Employers are spending more on training 5 A diverse and healthy workforce is a priority Despite current anxieties about the impact of disruptive innovation and new technologies, employers do not predict a large number of total job losses. Employers are looking for talented graduates capable of rapidly acquiring a comprehensive mix of skills. Organizations are working with schools to build work-integrated learning programs. More than 50 per cent of organizations reported spending at least $1000 a year, per employee. Respondents report that they are actively working towards having a workforce with diverse skills and creating a culture that supports employee well-being.

In this report, we take a more granular approach, attempting to understand the impact of the demand for digital skills on specific occupations. To conduct our analysis, we went to the source: the skills employers ask for in job postings. Burning Glass scans close to 40,000 job boards, employer sites, and other sources of job postings daily, using artificial intelligence technology to break down these postings into the specific skills and qualifications employers demand. As we examined these postings, certain clusters of digital skills became apparent: Productivity Software Skills, such as using spreadsheets and word processing programs, are required for the majority of middle-skill jobs. In addition, they often serve as a baseline skill level for more advanced positions. For this report, “productivity software middle-skill occupations” are occupations that require only productivity software skills and no other digital skill group. Advanced Digital Skills, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software and higherend computer networking skills, are required in many middle-skill occupations in addition to a baseline of productivity software skills. Occupationally Specific Digital Skills, such as health technology and computer-controlled machines, are required in specific technical occupations. For many machinist positions, for example, the ability to physically operate machine tools isn’t as important as the ability to guide the robots that operate the tools. The definition of middle-skill jobs has itself become fuzzy, as degree inflation and other trends make the traditional definition (more than a high school diploma, less than a bachelor’s degree) less accurate. For our purposes, we defined middle-skill occupations as those where fewer than 80% of job postings called for a bachelor’s degree and that also offer a median hourly wage above that of the national living wage.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the nature of work. In this discussion paper, part of our ongoing research on the impact of technology on the economy, business, and society, we present new findings on the coming shifts in demand for workforce skills and how work is organized within companies, as people increasingly interact with machines in the workplace. We quantify time spent on 25 core workplace skills today and in the future for the United States and five European countries, with a particular focus on five sectors: banking and insurance, energy and mining, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. Key findings: ƒ Automation will accelerate the shift in required workforce skills we have seen over the past 15 years. Our research finds that the strongest growth in demand will be for technological skills, the smallest category today, which will rise by 55 percent and by 2030 will represent 17 percent of hours worked, up from 11 percent in 2016. This surge will affect demand for basic digital skills as well as advanced technological skills such as programming. Demand for social and emotional skills such as leadership and managing others will rise by 24 percent, to 22 percent of hours worked. Demand for higher cognitive skills will grow moderately overall, but will rise sharply for some of these skills, especially creativity. ƒ Some skill categories will be less in demand. Basic cognitive skills, which include basic data input and processing, will decline by 15 percent, falling to 14 percent of hours worked from 18 percent. Demand for physical and manual skills, which include general equipment operation, will also drop, by 14 percent, but will remain the largest category of workforce skills in 2030 in many countries, accounting for 25 percent of the total hours worked. Skill shifts will play out differently across sectors. Healthcare, for example, will see a rising need for physical skills, even as demand for them declines in manufacturing and other sectors. ƒ Companies will need to make significant organizational changes at the same time as addressing these skill shifts to stay competitive. A survey of more than 3,000 business leaders in seven countries highlights a new emphasis on continuous learning for workers and a shift to more cross-functional and team-based work. As tasks change, jobs will need to be redefined and companies say they will need to become more agile. Independent work will likely grow. Leadership and human resources will also need to adapt: almost 20 percent of companies say their executive team lacks sufficient knowledge to lead adoption of automation and artificial intelligence. Almost one in three firms are concerned that lacking the skills they need for automation adoption will hurt their future financial performance. ƒ Competition for high-skill workers will increase, while displacement will be concentrated mainly on low-skill workers, continuing a trend that has exacerbated income inequality and reduced middle-wage jobs. Companies say that high-skill workers are most likely to be hired and retrained, and to see rising wages. Firms in the forefront of automation adoption expect to attract the talent they need, but slower adopters fear their options will be more limited. ƒ Almost half of the companies we surveyed say they expect to take the lead in building the workforce of the future, but all stakeholders will need to work together to manage the large-scale retraining and other transition challenges ahead. Firms can collaborate with educators to reshape school and college curricula. Industry associations can help build talent pipelines, while labor unions can help with cross-sector mobility. Governments will need to strengthen safeguards for workers in transition and encourage mobility, including with a shift to portable benefits, as ways of working and the workplace itself are transformed in the new era.

Every day, Canadians make choices that affect their careers and lives, and businesses make choices that affect their organizations. Accurate, timely and relevant information is needed to ensure these decisions are well informed. However, recent developments (including technological change) have created information gaps in the area of skills and skill requirements for jobs. Even the skill requirements for many traditional jobs are changing and employers report challenges in finding workers with the right skills to fill vacancies—in industries old and new. Similarly, workers struggle to understand the changing skills needed for jobs and often lack the tools and knowledge to meet these new requirements. How do workers and employers make sense of this labour market, which is increasingly driven by supply-and-demand of skills as opposed to the qualifications of graduates?

The world cannot wait for the fog of geopolitical and geo-economic uncertainty to lift. Opting to ride out the current period in the hope that the global system will œsnap back runs the risk of missing crucial windows to address pressing challenges. On key issues such as the economy, the environment, technology and public health, stakeholders must find ways to act quickly and with purpose within an unsettled global landscape. This is the context in which the World Economic Forum publishes the 15th edition of the Global Risks Report.

Discussions of Canada's so-called œskills gap have reached a fever pitch. Driven by conflicting reports and data, the conversation shows no signs of abating. On the one hand, economic indicators commonly used to identify gaps point to problems limited to only certain occupations (like health occupations) and certain provinces (like Alberta) rather than to a general skills crisis. On the other hand, employers continue to report a mismatch between the skills they need in their workplaces and those possessed by job seekers, and to voice concern that the postsecondary system is not graduating students with the skills they need. This paper is the first of three on Canada's skills gap. It outlines the conflicting views around the existence and extent of a divide between the skills postsecondary graduate possess and those employers want. In laying out the competing perspectives on this issue, the report identifies four distinct themes that have been conflated in policy debates, in turn hindering efforts to gain a clearer understanding of the skills gap in Canada. For example, in the eyes of some employers and commentators, the skills gap problem is one of too few high-skilled workers in the Canadian labour market. For others, it is a problem of weak essential or soft skills, such as working with others, oral communication and problem solving. Still others use the term œskills gap to refer to what might better be described as an œexperience gap - a shortage of œwork-ready employees possessing those skills that are acquired through work experience. Commentary on the skills gap has tended to lump these different perspectives together and this has acted as an obstacle to a coherent narrative around skills in Canada. This report suggests that these themes should be recognized as distinct from one another. By framing Canada's skills gap in this way, we set the stage for the second and third papers of this series, which document the expectations of Canadian employers with regard to the skill levels of new graduate hires. In tackling the question of the skills gap at its interface - the initial point of contact between employers and new graduates in the advertisements and hiring processes for entry-level jobs - reports in this series provide new opportunities for groups on both the demand (employers) and supply (postsecondary) sides of the skills gap debate to strengthen alignment between the postsecondary sector and the Canadian labour market.

The year-of-landing appears to predict the level and trajectory of median wage and salary (W&S) earnings of immigrants to Canada: For immigrants who arrived in the 1990 to 2010 period, W&S earnings are similar in the first year of participation in the Canadian labour market (ranging between $18,000 and $24,000 in constant $2012); ï‚· For each year-of-landing cohort, the median W&S earnings increase in real terms due, at least in part, to productivity growth attributable to labour market experience in Canada; and ï‚· Median W&S earnings of a given year-of-landing cohort seldom catch up to the median W&S earnings of an earlier cohort.

Canada's population is increasingly racialized. The 2016 census counted 7.7 million racialized individuals in Canada. That number represented 22% of the population, up sharply from 16% just a decade earlier. Unfortunately, the rapid growth in the racialized population is not being matched by a corresponding increase in economic equality. This paper uses 2016 census data to paint a portrait of income inequality between racialized and non-racialized Canadians. It also looks at the labour market discrimination faced by racialized workers in 2006 and 2016. Racialized workers are more likely to be active in the workforce than non-racialized workers, either working or trying to find work, but this does not result in better employment outcomes for them. From 2006 to 2016, there was little change to the patterns of employment and earnings inequality along racial and gender lines in Canada. Overall in 2016, the racialized population had an unemployment rate of 9.2% compared to the non-racialized rate of 7.3%. Racialized women had the highest unemployment rate at 9.6%, followed by racialized men at 8.8%, non-racialized men at 8.2%, and non-racialized women at 6.4%. In 2015, racialized men earned 78 cents for every dollar that non-racialized men earned. This earnings gap remained unchanged since 2005.Labour market discrimination continues to be gendered and racialized. Racialized women earned 59 cents for every dollar that non-racialized men earned, while non-racialized women earned 67 cents for every dollar that non-racialized men earned. Little progress was made in reducing this gap over the 10-year period. This paper also looked at differences in income from wealth between the racialized and non-racialized population. The racialized gap in capital gains is clear: 8.3% of the racialized population over the age of 15 reported capital gains, compared to 11.9% of the non-racialized population. And the average amount of capital gains of non-racialized Canadians ($13,974) is 29% higher than the average amount for racialized Canadians ($10,828). Investment income shows a similar pattern: 25.1% of the racialized population over the age of 15 reported investment income, compared to 30.8% of the non-racialized population. The average investment income for the non-racialized population ($11,428) is 47% higher than the average for the racialized population ($7,774). These data provide a glimpse of the likely differences in wealth between racialized and non-racialized Canadians. These aspects of income inequality, from both employment and wealth, are also visible in the inequality in family incomes. The data show that racialized individuals are more likely to be in families in the bottom half of the income distribution (60%) than non-racialized individuals are (47%). This paper also explores the relationship between race, immigration and employment incomes. We saw that non-racialized immigrants do better in the Canadian labour market, and do better sooner, than racialized immigrants do. Moreover, income inequality between racialized and non-racialized Canadians extends to the second and third generations--and beyond. Clearly, immigration is not the only issue. Among prime-age (25-54 years old) workers, racialized immigrant men earned 71 cents for every dollar that non-racialized immigrant men earned. Racialized immigrant women earned 79 cents for every dollar that non-racialized immigrant women earned. These gaps continue into the second generation and beyond. Second-generation racialized men earned 79 cents for every dollar that second-generation non-racialized men earned. Second-generation racialized women earned 96 cents for every dollar that second-generation non-racialized women earned. Our analysis also illustrates the importance of understanding the distinct barriers in the labour market faced by different racialized groups. Both menand women who identified as Black had higher labour force participation rates than their non-racialized counterparts. However, they also had higher unemployment rates and bigger wage gaps than the average for all racialized workers. Men who identified as Filipino had much lower unemployment rates than the average for racialized workers and yet had a larger earnings gap, while women who identified as Filipino had lower unemployment rates and a smaller earnings gap than the racialized average. Addressing the labour market discrimination faced by racialized workers will require a deeper understanding of racism and the different ways it is manifested in the labour market. That understanding needs to be used to shape policy. Taken together, the data point to an unequivocal pattern of racialized economic inequality in Canada. In the absence of bold policies to combat racism, this economic inequality shows no signs of disappearing.