Most new jobs of high-paying, high-quality variety, says CIBC report

OTTAWA – A new look at job quality in Canada has come up with a surprising finding — the first six months of 2012 has seen a big improvement in the quality of work that has been created.

The CIBC says its employment quality index shot up 1.2 per cent in the first half of this year with the creation of 155,000 new jobs.

And most of them have been full-time and in high paying industries, the CIBC says.

Full-time employment rose by 1.1 per cent during the first half, 10 times faster than part-time work.

As well, the number of employees in high-paying sectors such as petroleum and coal manufacturing, oil and gas extraction, heavy and civil engineering construction and transportation equipment manufacturing rose by 1.6 per cent.

That is more than double the growth in lower-paying sectors.

The findings are a change from previous CIBC reports, which have tended to show that many jobs created since the 2008-09 recession were of the lower paying service variety.

The CIBC is not optimistic the new trend will last, however. It says with the global economy slowing and the real estate market cooling, high-paying work in the export sector and construction will be in short supply.