A Regional Analysis Of The Supply And Demand Of Farm Labor In Canada

Abstract

This is an aggregative study covering the years 1946 to 1962, with the primary objective ofexamining the most significant factors which affect a market structure for farm labor. A recursive system is used to derive an equilibrium level of both hired and family farm labor during the period studied as well as an equilibrium level of future farm labor requirement by 1970. The findings show that the demand for farm labor was apparently not, or weakly, responsive to the farm wage rate in all regions and it was weakly responsive to the parity ratio, farm machinery and productivity. On the supply side, farm labor also was not, or weakly, responsive to the variables included in all regions with the exception of the farm wage rate or parity ratio in B.C. and the adjusted non‐farm wage rate and farm machinery in the Atlantic region. The results also show that, in Canada as a whole, the projected family labor employment will be 294,000 manequivalents by 1910 or 42 percent decline as compared to the 1962 level, while the projected hired labor employment will be 114,000 manequivalents in 1970 or 14 percent increase in the eight years after 1962. This would likely be the tendency because of the continuous economic development on the one hand and the consolidation of farms on the other.