Why we’re doing this project
Digitalization continues to impact every single occupation in Canada. But how it affects individual workers and their jobs, matters. Technology shouldn’t be a force that happens to us, nor should it replace valuable human talent.
In our 2018 report, Better, Faster, Stronger, we explored the dual challenge of automation in Ontario, where many firms hesitate to adopt technologies known to improve productivity and competitiveness. However, firms that do adopt them can bring about significant disruptions to workers’ income and well-being, while others flourish.
Digitalization in Canada is a two-part report series, that expands on the dual challenge by exploring how digital technology has impacted individual workers and their jobs, and how that impact has affected the tech labour force in terms of worker inclusion, productivity, and pay across 500 occupations in Canada.
Further and Further Away: Canada’s unrealized digital potential offers a comprehensive insight into why Canada is not using our tech workforce to its highest potential. We use most recent census data from 2001 to 2016 to examine how digitalization has affected tech workers based on selected identity characteristics (race, sex, age, experience, province of residence).
The report also includes a Salary Gap Calculator. This interactive tool allows you to track pay gaps amongst demographic groups that have been historically underrepresented in Canada’s economy. Demographic characteristics analyzed include: sex, race, province of residence, immigration status and age (proxied by experience).
In Race Alongside the Machines: Occupational Digitalization Trends in Canada, 2006-2021, we set out to gain insight into how technology has changed tech work by measuring digital intensity and the rate of change in digital intensity across 500 occupations in Canada in the past 15 years.
This project will provide policymakers, business leaders, workforce developers, and unions with an understanding of how to address the dual challenge of increasing technology adoption while ensuring that it augments and complements work. And ultimately, ensure that the tech workforce is representative of Canada’s diverse population and is equitable in salary and participation.
Digitalization: Europe Edition
Digitalization of Work: The Case of Europe draws upon the previous two reports and provides insights to researchers looking to replicate the work or conduct similar studies for Europe. The brief highlights potential differences in how digital technology impacts workers in Canada and Europe.
In this brief, we acknowledge the wide heterogeneity across EU member states and discuss the importance of using comparable data sources while ensuring that local and unique details of member states are not ignored. We also discuss the importance of the consideration of an equity framework within the context of the EU. Evidence suggests that there is likely room for more effective use of the potential of digital workers in Europe, rendering similar work ever more important.
