We study the extent to which manufacturing decline and local housing booms contributed to changes in labor market outcomes during the 2000s, focusing primarily on the distributional consequences across geographical areas and demographic groups. Using a local labor markets design, we estimate that manufacturing decline significantly reduced employment between 2000 and 2006, while local housing booms increased employment by roughly the same magnitude. The effects of manufacturing decline persist through 2012, but we find no persistent employment effects of local housing booms, likely because housing booms were associated with subsequent busts of similar magnitude. These results suggest that housing booms “masked” negative employment growth that would have otherwise occurred earlier in the absence of the booms. This “masking” occurred both within and between cities and demographic groups. For example, manufacturing decline disproportionately affected older men without a college education, while the housing boom disproportionately affected younger men and women, as well as immigrants. Applying our local labor market estimates to the national labor market, we find that roughly 40 percent of the reduction in employment during the 2000s can be attributed to manufacturing decline and that these negative effects would have appeared in aggregate employment statistics earlier had it not been for the large, temporary increases in housing demand.

An amendment to legislation in 2009 enabled New Zealand firms with fewer than 20 employees to hire new workers on trial periods. The scheme was subsequently extended to employers of all sizes. The policy was intended to encourage firms to take on more employees, and particularly more disadvantaged job seekers, by reducing the risk associated with hiring an unknown worker. We use unit record linked employer-employee data and the staggered introduction of the policy for firms of different sizes to assess the policy effect on firm hiring behaviour. We find no evidence that the policy affected the number of hires by firms on average, either overall or into employment that lasted beyond the trial period. We also do not find an effect on hiring of disadvantaged jobseekers. However, our results suggest that the policy increased hiring in industries with high use of trial periods by 10.3 percent.

We have prepared this working paper to address a sizeable knowledge gap – to assess the impact of emerging technologies on five key manufacturing and services sectors in the ASEAN region. The sectors were chosen because they are significant contributors to growth and employment in the region. In manufacturing, we look at: (1) automotive and auto parts, (2) electrical and electronics, and (3) textile, clothing and footwear. In services, we review: (4) business process outsourcing, and (5) retail. Throughout the report, major technological trends permeating and transforming each sector are identified and the implications for enterprises and the workforce over a ten-year time period are analysed.

The twin forces of technological change and globalization are reshaping the global economy in multiple and important ways. Nowhere are their effects more pronounced than in labor markets. Considerable attention is now being devoted to analyzing and anticipating changing patterns of employment and wages in advanced economies. Thus far, less focus has been given to understanding the implications for emerging economies. The 2016 Brookings Blum Roundtable was convened to take on that agenda. How are the factors driving change in global labor markets playing out differently in developing economies? What are the jobs of the future and how will the terms of employment differ? What skills will those job demand and how will those skills be acquired? And finally, what are the implications of these changes for development prospects and for society? This essay provides a brief account of the roundtable conversation. It is followed by six essays, authored by leading experts on this topic, that were commissioned to inform the roundtable discussion.

Everyone talks about it, but many are questioning what concrete artificial intelligence (AI) and how it will change the working environment of each within companies. Ramy Sedra is associated consulting and analytical national leader for PwC. It supports companies who wish to take the path of AI in the demystifying and helping to determine which tasks could be assigned. [googletranslate_en]

We need to start putting workers at the centre of the debate about the future of work and ensure they are equipped with the skills that will be needed.

The rapid development of digital technologies is associated with a new industrial revolution affecting the economic sphere, political and cultural. The digital economy today represents a key driver of growth, productivity and competitiveness for businesses. It is causing new innovative sectors and transformed many traditional sectors whose impact goes far beyond the information and communications technology (ICT). Digital certainly has its challenges, but it also offers unique opportunities for companies. These can store and process large amounts of data through different tools, increase their ability to innovate, develop high value-added products and access new business opportunities. Digital technologies contribute to the creation and communication of ideas that lead to new concepts and innovative applications. Thus emerges a new generation of entrepreneurs. To be able to make our own in this new economic reality, Québec companies must be able to rely on adequate levers. The Chamber believes that the future digital strategy should aim to establish the necessary bases for the development of these levers. [googletranslate_en]

Montreal hosts a veritable ecosystem of individuals, businesses, funders and partners feed each other and work together to create a single territory for the development of creative industries. At the center of this ecosystem is the talent or the raw material needed for the design, production, distribution and dissemination of content and creative products. These are the artists, craftsmen and other artists working in the creative industry, in companies or as self-employed. [googletranslate_en]

To develop and grow, businesses must have access to a workforce appropriate to their needs. Various factors, including new technologies and the aging of the population, influencing the business environment. Here we draw a picture of the situation and possibilities of the metropolis. Our goal is to provide a common tool for analyzing the various socioeconomic stakeholders to enable them to fill the jobs of tomorrow. [googletranslate_en]