White Paper

Americans have always joined together—whether in parent teacher associations or local community organizations—to solve problems and make changes that improve their lives and their communities. Through unions, people join together to strive for improvements at the place where they spend a large portion of their waking hours: work. The freedom of workers to join together in unions and negotiate with employers (in a process known as collective bargaining) is widely recognized as a fundamental human right across the globe. In the United States, this right is protected by the U.S. Constitution and U.S. law and is supported by a majority of Americans.1 Over 16 million working women and men in the United States are exercising this right—these 16 million workers are represented by unions. Overall, more than one in nine U.S. workers are represented by unions. This representation makes organized labor one of the largest institutions in America.2 By providing data on union coverage, activities, and impacts, this report helps explain how unions fit into the economy today; how they affect workers, communities, occupations and industries, and the country at large; and why collective bargaining is essential for a fair and prosperous economy and a vibrant democracy. It also describes how decades of anti-union campaigns and policies have made it much harder for working people to use their collective voice to sustain their standard of living.

Do industries shed jobs when they adopt new labor-saving technologies? Sometimes productivity-enhancing technology increases industry employment instead. In manufacturing, jobs grew along with productivity for a century or more; only later did productivity gains bring declining employment. What changed? Markets became saturated. While the literature on structural change provides reasons for the decline in the manufacturing share of employment, few papers can explain both the rise and subsequent fall. Using two centuries of data, a simple model of demand accurately explains the rise and fall of employment in the US textile, steel, and automotive industries. The model helps explain why the Industrial Revolution was highly disruptive despite low productivity growth and why information technologies appear to have positive effects on employment today.

Integrated next-generation technologies may equip students to continue their education their entire lives, and can address three goals: fortifying student skills, increasing education’s ROI, and enabling students to be innovative and entrepreneurial. Education technology providers will likely need to shift their focus from content to connections.

We examine how the enforceability of covenants not to compete (CNCs) affects employee mobility and wages of high-tech workers. We expect CNC enforceability to lengthen job spells and constrain mobility, but its impact on wages is ambiguous. Using a matched employer employee dataset covering the universe of jobs in thirty U.S states, we find that higher CNC enforceability is associated with longer job spells (fewer jobs over time), and a greater chance of leaving the state for technology workers. Consistent with a “lock-in” effect of CNCs, we find persistent wage-suppressing effects that last throughout a worker’s job and employment history.

Globally, women generate 37 percent of global GDP despite accounting for 50 percent of the global working-age population. The global average contribution to GDP masks large variations among regions. The share of regional GDP output generated by women is only 17 percent in India, 18 percent in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), 24 percent in South Asia (excluding India), and 38 percent in Western Europe. In North America and Oceania, China, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the share is 40 to 41 percent.2 For the past 10 years, McKinsey has been researching to build the case for greater parity in the economy and corporations. Through the Women Matter and Women in the Workplace series, and McKinsey Global Institute's Power of parity reports, we have developed a global and regional understanding of the situation, built a clear economic case for change, both at the macro and micro levels, and identified common barriers and change drivers across the world, as well as specific issues or gaps to fix in some regions. Ten years after our first report, while there is momentum in some parts of the world— namely Europe, North America and some places in Asia and Latin America—women are still underrepresented in the economy and in companies' top management. This anniversary publication provides an updated fact-based picture of the representation of women in the top management of corporations around the world and brings together the key learning from our work in gender parity over the past ten years. It includes the latest facts and insights from our studies in regions, in order to reinforce the case for change, and offers an overview of the persistent barriers as well as the critical levers needed to make change happen.

This report builds on the bodies of research from McKinsey’s Women Matter and MGI’s The Power of Parity, positioning efforts to improve gender equality in the context of Canada’s changing economy and future needs for productivity and growth. Although Canada has made great progress toward improving the social and economic opportunities for women, challenges remain in addressing a number of areas of inequality across both work and society. In analyzing this issue for Canada, we hope to help business leaders chart the way to achieving greater gender diversity within their corporations and support all stakeholders, including policy makers, in devising effective interventions that promote equitable growth and broad-based prosperity.

Most careers begin with an entry-level job, which essentially require no previous work experience. Job vacancies for entry-level positions are not only open to persons with no previous work experience, such as new entrants to the workforce and recent graduates, but also to those re-entering the labour market or wishing to change careers. These positions enable workers to acquire the skills and experience necessary to advance towards better jobs in the future. Changes in the economic landscape, including shifts to globalized markets and an emphasis on innovation and technology, have led to changes in how Canadians transition into the labour market. Some Canadians have responded by pursuing higher education: the proportion of employed Canadians aged 25 to 44 with a university degree increased from 18% in 1990 to 38% in 2016.1 For other Canadians, a cooperative education facilitates the school-to-work transition and provides an opportunity to acquire marketable skills: the proportion of college graduates who participated in a co-op program rose from 7% in 1986 to 22% in 2010.2 In response to an increased demand for skilled tradespeople, others have opted for apprenticeship programs that provide on-the-job training: registration in apprenticeship programs increased by 15% between 2008 and 2015, from 390,000 to 451,000.3 Understanding whether the skills employers are looking for differ from the ones available in the labour market is important. Some evidence hints that Canadian employers are having difficulty recruiting qualified workers.4 Employers are looking to recruit employees 2 / Insights on Canadian Society December 2017 — Statistics Canada Getting your foot in the door: A look at entry-level job vacancies in Canada who can adapt to changing workplace and industry conditions, as well as those who demonstrate strong “people skills” such as collaboration, communication, functional knowledge and problem solving skills

A look at how women, visible minorities and Indigenous people are represented in the highest ranks of the federal public service.

This paper examines the rate of chronic low income among immigrants aged 25 or older in Canada during the 2000s. Chronic low income is defined as having a family income under a low-income cut-off for five consecutive years or more. A regionally adjusted low-income measure is used for the analysis. Among immigrants who were in low income in any given year, about one-half were in chronic low income. The highest chronic rates were observed among immigrant seniors, as well as immigrants who were unattached or lone parents. There were large differences in the chronic low-income rate by immigrant place of birth, even after adjusting for differences in other immigrant background characteristics. The chronic low-income rate was lower among economic class immigrants than among family or refugee classes, but the difference was reduced after adjusting for background characteristics. Chronic low-income rates among immigrants varied significantly across the 29 cities/regions in the study, varying by a factor of 5 between the highest and lowest rates. However, the community ranking was not static and changed significantly between the beginning and end of the 2000s.