The job market in this country has done pretty well since our economic downturn began late last year. The percentage of workers who did lose jobs is less than 50% as much as in the US, as an example.Job creation in Canada resumed in August, while the U.S. employment decrease.

There’s good and bad news. The most up to date job-quality quantifications by economist Benjamin Tal at CIBC World Markets demonstrates the deterioration that accompanies difficult times. Job quality, measured by the percentage of Canadians in high-wage jobs or full-time paid employment, has gone down at steep levels over the past half year, Tal finds.

This isn’t so striking, since in downturns it’s common for some to be pushed into lower-paying or part-time work. Self-employment is another option when paid employment becomes less common. But were we not resisting that trend? During the first five months of the economic downturn in Canada, job quality remained remarkably stable, considering that 350,000 jobs were fleeing from the country.

Wages, salaries and so on, surprisingly rose so that even after subtracting both the lost paycheques and inflation, total real income for Canadians moved up slightly. This might have shown the fact Canada didn’t suffer the banking and housing collapses that harmed U.S. growth over a year before Canada’s recession began. Or as Tal said it pithily: “This recession was not made in Canada; we’re basically second-hand smokers.” Meanwhile, it’s average for the full impact of a slump on well-paid jobs to show itself in a slower manner.

The younger, less-skilled, lower-paid workers are always at the most risk to layoffs and other job freezes. Only after conditions become really dire do the more senior or highly skilled employees risk suffering economically. By March this was happening, at a time when the downturn was punishing the auto industry, petroleum, construction and many others. Since then, Canadian job quality has tumbled, illustrating the lack of proportion in the loss of highly paid jobs in areas ranging from petroleum to computer manufacturing to the public sector. Inflation-adjusted total income for Canadians has declined by a substantial 1.7 per cent since early spring.

Even though the economy is now perceived to be growing and job numbers have increased, it will take some time for job-quality deterioration to be reversed. How long? It’s impossible to say with precision. How is it that job quality is decreasing as the number of jobs is rising? Probably in part because this growth in employment will take a long time to decrease joblessness to anywhere near its former low.

Patience, my friends, patience.

Sandy Hutchens