This paper reports on a search for the New Foundational Skills of the digital economy. How and when do evolving skills change the job market? Which skills are in demand in both digitally intensive jobs, and more broadly? Which skills retain their value over time? If such a set of emergent, critical skills exists, how do the skills interact, and what do they mean for job seekers and incumbent employees, educators, and employers? To find out, the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) commissioned Burning Glass Technologies to examine skills in the job market by drawing from a set of more than 150 million unique U.S. job postings, dating back to 2007. The research identified 14 skills that have become foundational in the new economy, which converge in three interrelated groups: Human Skills, business skills, and digital skills. Human Skills have a long history of close study, so BHEF and Burning Glass are especially pleased to subject these two other major segments of the skills continuum – Business Enabler and Digital Building Block Skills – to similar scrutiny. These 14 foundational skills play major roles in the economy and in the lives of job seekers and incumbent employees. They increase in value when used in combination. They often command salary premiums. They help individuals and institutions keep pace with change. Critically, they are in high demand in multiple sectors, and are spreading rapidly throughout the wider economy

A full-time job with one employer has been considered the norm for decades, but increasingly, this fails to capture how a large share of the workforce makes a living. A narrow focus only on traditional jobs ignores tens of millions who put together their own income streams and shape their own work lives. Although independent work is not a new phenomenon, it does not fit neatly into official labor statistics. This report aims to fill some of the data gaps surrounding it.

Advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are ushering in a new age of automation, as machines match or outperform human performance in a range of work activities, including ones requiring cognitive capabilities. In this report, part of our ongoing research into the future of work, we analyze the automation potential of the global economy, the factors that will determine the pace and extent of workplace adoption, and the economic impact associated with its potential.

The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers' intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforces during the next quarter. ManpowerGroup's comprehensive forecast of employer hiring plans has been running for more than 55 years and is one of the most trusted surveys of employment activity in the world.Key Findings: Global Hiring Outlook Remains Steady with Most Markets Anticipating Improved Hiring Intentions for Q2 Strongest hiring intentions reported by employers in Croatia, Greece, Japan, Taiwan, Romania and the U.S., while the weakest outlooks anticipated in Panama, Hong Kong, and Poland Strong hiring in the U.S. continues with employers reporting the most optimistic hiring intentions in the Americas for the tenth consecutive quarter Softer hiring outlooks in Europe reflect economic uncertainty as hiring intentions decline in 13 countries year-over-year

Project Description: A total of 176 faculty and staff from 43 of the 44 public postsecondary institutions in Ontario were surveyed online in the spring of 2017. The online survey was followed by in-depth telephone interviews with 45 key informants to further clarify the findings and discuss the challenges of implementing certain strategies. The types of WIL included in the study are: co-op, internships, applied research projects, field experience and service learning. The authors examined what had previously been identified as major barriers, examined institution-level strategies and attempted to determine best practices for postsecondary institutions that would maximize WIL participation. Findings: Student demand for WIL opportunities is increasing and many options are often oversubscribed. However, more could be done to increase the participation of certain groups such as first-generation, Indigenous and other minority students in WIL programs. There are a variety of WIL support programs available to students such as preparatory WIL courses, dedicated WIL advisers, seminars and group presentations, and one-on-one discussions with students. However, there is no one clear way for Ontario PSE institutions to address the challenges students face when participating in WIL and different institutions use a variety of supports and strategies. Two factors that seem to be most important are the need for consistent messaging to manage student expectations and the need for faculty awareness of WIL opportunities to increase student participation. The survey findings suggest that having faculty champions is a very effective way to promote WIL to students. This strategy may not be widely used because of a lack of awareness about WIL within some departments and faculty reluctance to get involved. Students may face time and financial pressures when taking part in a WIL program and resources exist to help them manage these challenges. International students and those facing physical, mental or social challenges may also encounter difficulties in participating in WIL and respondents suggested these can be addressed through a combination of WIL-specific supports (e.g., a dedicated WIL adviser, assistance with job interview preparation) and institution-wide supports (e.g., campus offices for international students or students with disabilities). WIL coordinators noted that they rely on centralized supports within their institutions to provide assistance to students, but this strategy relies on students being willing to self-identify. While informants felt that having an overarching WIL policy is important it is “just as important to have flexibility built into the policy to allow departments to design what works best for them and for their students,” the authors conclude.

About 13 per cent of Canadian workers have skills mismatched to their jobs. Although this is somewhat in line with an average of around 10 per cent among OECD countries in an international survey, Canadian policymakers have two reasons for concern. Firstly, there is significant variation across socioeconomic groups. While workers with higher educational attainment are more likely to be over-skilled, women, immigrants, and older workers are more likely to be under-skilled for their jobs. In the case of immigrants, the under-skilled problem entirely disappears with time spent in Canada, highlighting the importance of settlement policies that provide rigorous and accessible skills training, language programs, and job-search workshops for newcomers. Secondly, these results could worsen in the years ahead in the face of technological development and demographic aging that are occurring in the labour market at the same time as the role of newcomers in Canada's labour force is growing. As it is, the majority of workers across occupations need to use cognitive skills such as literacy, numeracy, and problem solving at least once a week at work. More importantly, there is no occupation where these skills are not required at all., This study's results highlight the importance of providing more opportunities for skills development and lifelong learning for all workers and better addressing individual training needs, particularly, among under-skilled people such as older workers and new immigrants. Businesses - in addition to providing training opportunities for under-skilled workers - can reduce mismatches within their organizations by appropriately reassigning tasks, providing relocation assistance and finding innovative ways to use workers' skills in order to optimize productivity. Governments can help reduce skills mismatch with policies that enhance labour market flexibility, ease labour mobility, and more importantly, increase participation in lifelong learning.

As part of the technical assistance project, this report seeks to inform people in the workforce development system in particular about the most common uses, successes, and challenges of RT LMI. It provides an overview of major RT LMI vendors and their products and services. It also profiles how three states and three regional workforce development knowledge centers are using RT LMI to identify and address labor market issues.

Working Together: Indigenous Recruitment and Retention in Remote Canada examines the current situation of Indigenous recruitment and retention for organizations operating in Canada's Northern and remote regions. Its mixed methods approach integrates findings from a survey of Northern and remote employers conducted by the Centre for the North, along with expert interviews and an environmental scan of policy and research. The report identifies persistent challenges that employers and Indigenous employees continue to face and highlights best practices to help employers develop effective recruitment and retention strategies suitable for Canada's Northern and remote regions. Our discussion of challenges and best practices also guides readers through the evolving landscape of policy and public opinion surrounding Indigenous recruitment and retention issues in Canada.

Our annual report tracking CEO pay is now in its twelfth year, with the first one published in 2008. These reports have consistently followed the average pay of the top 100 highest-paid CEOs from companies on Canada's S&P/ TSX Composite, the largest 260-odd publicly traded companies in Canada. As always, we compiled our data this year directly from company proxy circulars as filed on SEDAR (the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval).1 All pay data is from 2017 (the most recent data available) and is stated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified.2 The full data tables are available in the Appendix. In a separate report, œThe Double-Pane Glass Ceiling,3 we use a broader version of this dataset to examine the gender pay gap among all top-earning executives from S&P/TSX Composite companies--not just the CEO.We looked also at the chief financial officer (CFO), the chief operations officer (COO) and others. The report finds that extreme bonus pay observed at the CEO level is also driving a yawning gender pay gap between the top male and female executives in general in corporate Canada.