The changing nature of work in Canada: 1987 to 2024

Marc Frenette

Economic and Social Reports from Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch

Abstract: Technology is constantly evolving, and this can change the tasks that human employees perform in the workplace. For much of history, technological advances have remained within the realm of routine, manual tasks. Accordingly, workers performing these tasks have been the ones facing the risk of job transformation or perhaps even job displacement. For example, Frank et al. (2021) found that from 1987 to 2018, the share of Canadian workers employed in jobs associated with routine, manual tasks declined gradually, while the share employed in jobs associated with non-routine, cognitive tasks increased gradually. Frenette (2023) demonstrated that these trends accelerated somewhat over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic (2019 to 2022), possibly because firms may have increased their reliance on automation technology to make the production and delivery of their goods and services more resilient to potential future shutdowns.

Keywords: Technology; job transformation; jobs; automation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 M21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-02-26
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202500200004e

DOI: 10.25318/36280001202500200004-eng

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