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Background
Much of the increase in Canadian unemployment in the early 1990s
has now been reversed, although the employment-population ratio remains
well below previous peaks. Looking ahead, ongoing sustainable reductions
in aggregate unemployment may depend on better structural performance of
Canadian labour markets. And sustainable strong growth in the available
workforce will depend on reductions in structural unemployment. Consequently,
the importance of structural labour market policies as a means to lower
unemployment and sustain economic growth will increase in the early years
of the new millennium.
The objective of this conference is to examine the structural aspects
of unemployment in Canada. The conference will shed new light on the characteristics
of the non-employed and the structural problems that make it difficult
for them to find regular employment. The experience of countries such as
the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands which have been
able to lower unemployment below the previous cyclical peak with, for the
most part, low and stable inflation may hold important lessons on how to
successfully deal with the hard-to-employ and will form an important component
of the conference. The preliminary conference program is enclosed.
NOTE: Most of these papers were published in a Special CPP Supplement on Structural Aspects of Unemployment in Canada . The remaining papers presented at this conference are available from the CSLS archives in pdf format. To arrange to have a paper emailed to you, please send the name of the article and the author to info@csls.ca. |
