The growing number of non-permanent residents in Canada is becoming increasingly underrepresented in federal labour market data, skewing key economic metrics like unemployment rates and nominal wage growth, a new report suggests.
This underrepresentation in Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey makes it difficult for policymakers and analysts to create effective economic policies, according to a newly released report from the C.D. Howe Institute.
“Canada’s temporary resident population has more than doubled in recent years, yet our labour market surveys fail to reflect this shift accurately,” says report author and University of Waterloo professor Mikal Skuterud.
“This data gap is no longer a technical issue—it has broad implications for informing … monetary policy decisions and collective bargaining negotiations across the country.”…