Migration and Emigration in Canada until 2003

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The Canadian Labor Market:
As was noted above, Statistics Canada data indicates that exports to the U.S. have grown rapidly during the FTA/NAFTA era. Imports from the U.S. have also grown but not as quickly, resulting in a growing trade surplus. The average annual trade surplus was $19.7 billion (in Canadian dollars) during the 1990s, more than double the $9.4 billion average in the 1980s. Canada's current account surplus with the U.S., which includes net payments to U.S. investors, was also positive although much lower, averaging $6 billion annually. Here too, though, it was a lot higher than in the 1980s when the bilateral current account was roughly in balance. Manufacturing employment bore the brunt of corporate restructuring, most severely in the first wave (1989-93), falling by 414,000 or 20 percent of the workforce. The number of manufacturing establishments fell by 19 percent during 1988-95. High-tariff sectors were especially hard hit. Leather experienced a 48 percent drop in employment, clothing 31 percent, primary textiles 32 percent, and furniture 39 percent. But employment was also slashed in medium-tariff sectors such as machinery (32 percent) and electrical and electronic products (28 percent). By the end of the decade manufacturing employment was still 6 percent below ist 1989 level. Employment in clothing, for example, was still 26 percent below 1989, and electrical/electronics was down 19 percent. Wages were flat or falling even in the so-called winning export sectors. Unemployment in the 1990s averaged 9.6 percent compared to the U.S. rate of 5.8 percent, which is a doubling of the gap compared to the 1980s (Sharpe, 2000). This level of unemployment was higher than in any other decade since the 1930s. While average worker earnings were stagnant, casualized (or nonstandard) employment exploded, as people struggled to cope during the prolonged slump and restructuring. Paid full-time employment growth for most of the decade was almost