Better Jobs And More Of Them

CIBC's job-quality index -- which takes into account the proportion that are full-time rather than part-time, paid rather than self-employment, and changes in compensation -- rose 3.8 per cent during the first nine months of this year to a two-year high from what had been a decade low. The improvement, which has been due to a recent shift in employment growth to high-paying sectors from low-paying ones, has been reflected in an eight per cent annualized increase in personal income, it said. "The recent surge in consumer spending is a direct consequence of this reality," it said. The rebound in the quality of jobs is in contrast to what's happening in the United States, it added, noting the quality of employment there has fallen by 1.5 per cent since the beginning of the year, and is now nearly 13 per cent below the peak reached earlier in the decade. "It seems that in Canada the loss of manufacturing jobs is being offset by job gains in sectors with equivalent and higher employment quality," it said. "That's not the case in the U.S. where the jobs now being lost in sectors such as real-estate construction and manufacturing are being replaced by lower quality jobs." ... http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/business/story/4067417p-4669831c.html [Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 31, 2007]

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