Fraser Institute analysis looks at employment income growth across the pre-Covid decade
Employment income grew across many Canadian cities in the years before the pandemic, but it was uneven according to a new study.
Using Statistics Canada, the Fraser Institute’s research considered wages, salaries and commissions from paid and net self-employment income before taxes and transfers in 2019.
It included Canada’s 41 metropolitan areas and ranked them by their rate of growth in median employment income, using data from 2008 to 2019.
“Cities across Canada vary greatly in their employment incomes, but some regions and provinces fare better than others,” said Ben Eisen, a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute and co-author of Analysis of Changes in Median Employment Income in Canada’s Census Metropolitan Areas, 2008-2019.
Biggest gains
Adjusted for inflation, employment income growth across all 41 metro areas was 5.4%.
Quebec posted the biggest change in median employment income in the 2008-2019 period at +13.1% followed by Montreal (9.2%), Victoria (7.2%) and Vancouver (5.9%).
But 6 CMAs posted negative growth, 5 of them in Ontario led by Oshawa at -5.1% and including London (-1.3%) and Toronto (-1.6 per cent). Ottawa-Gatineau saw zero growth but had the highest median employment income.
Calgary also posted negative growth at -3.6% while Edmonton, Regina, and Saskatoon all performed poorly.
“Several major cities in Ontario experienced steep declines in median employment income during the 2008/09 recession, and the recovery after that was tepid,” Eisen commented.
