Job Quality in the United States and Canada

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents comparative empirical data on significant trends and developments in job quality in the United States and Canada. After discussing demographic, policy and institutional similarities and differences, key areas of job quality are compared, including nonstandard work arrangements, earnings quality, job polarization, labour market insecurity, work hours and overqualification and underemployment. Despite many similarities between these two liberal market economies, they exhibit a number of small differences in job quality and in the policies and institutions that produce them. There is evidence of greater levels of job polarization, earnings inequality, and long-term unemployment in the United States. A greater proportion of Canadian workers are in nonstandard employment arrangements, though there is greater earnings equality, labour market security and social protection in Canada. Distinct patterns of job quality connect to country differences in labour market, demographic and welfare institutions. For example, unions are more powerful in Canada as is the generosity of unemployment insurance. Despite these differences, flexible labour markets and weak regulation contribute to the rise in precarious work in both countries, pointing to the need for wage insurance, more generous unemployment insurance assistance, and more attention to active labour market policies.