This paper examines how middle-class earnings in Canada have changed between 1970 and 2005 using Census microdata. Middle-class earnings are defined as workers’ earnings between 50 and 150 percent of the median or as earnings between the 20th and 80th percentile earnings. The analysis...

This paper shows that changes in the skill requirements of jobs are one way by which economic downturns affect job match quality. In doing so this paper makes two contributions to the literature. The first contribution is to document a stylized fact about the cyclicality of skill requirements...

Between 1970 and 2005, the share of total earnings in the Canadian labour market going to middle-class workers has fallen significantly, while the earnings share of higher-earnings workers has risen. Is the middle-class being hollowed out? A paper by CLSRN affiliate Charles Beach (Queen’s...

Examples of educational mismatch and overqualifcation in the labour market can often be found in the same office building – the clerical worker with a bachelor’s degree reporting to a manager with a high school education – as an example. Some have argued that mismatch in...