Research summary: Education and employment during Covid-19

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Why this study

This study investigates how additional schooling affects whether workers are full-time or part-time at their main job, how many weeks they work, and how much they earn. It focuses on Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic year and compares it to 2015. This study also explores how more education made finding full-time and part-time work during COVID-19 less difficult when accounting for factors like ethnicity and gender.

What we did

We analyzed employment and earnings using 2016 and 2021 Census data. We focused on employees between 15 to 74 in age to see how additional education impacted the shares of workers who are full-time versus part-time. We also examined how it affects how much people work in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic year. We compared this with how much people worked and earned in 2015.

What we found

Both full-time and part-time employment rates fell in 2020 compared to 2015 regardless of education. This was largely due to the impacts of the pandemic.

The reduction in employment was larger (3% of population) for people with a high school education or less. Those with a bachelor's degree or more saw a smaller reduction (1% for full-time and 2% for part-time employees). Occupation, gender, and other factors were also important.

Employees in the following occupations were hit the hardest such as:

• sales and services
• arts
• culture
• recreation, and
• sports

Certain groups suffered economically, such as:

• women
• younger individuals
• residents of Atlantic Canada
• persons with disabilities
• immigrants in sales and service roles
• visible minorities, and
• Indigenous persons

Hourly wages and average yearly employment incomes were higher compared to 2015. This was mainly due to far fewer low wage workers driven by COVID-19. Overall, additional education cushioned the effect of the pandemic on employment, weekly work hours, and income loss. There are notable exceptions, such as part-time workers in Atlantic Canada and full-time Inuit employees.

What it means

The post-pandemic period highlights the role of education, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), as a factor that contributes to employment stability during economic crises. This highlights barriers that may affect some groups more than others that could warrant further attention from policy makers.

Contact us

For access to the full report, please contact us using the email address below.

Skills and Employment Branch, Labour Market Information Directorate, Policy Research Analysis and Geomatics Division

Email: esdc.nc.sspb.research-recherche.dgpss.cn.edsc@esdc-edsc.gc.ca