Study
| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.Job growth in GTA and Ottawa exceeds national average while the rest of the province lags
Uneven Job Creation in Ontario’s Urban Centres from 2008 to 2019
Summary
- This bulletin updates previous work measuring job creation in urban centres across Ontario.
- We find that in the GTA, in several Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) immediately surrounding the GTA, and in Ottawa, rates of job creation were above the national average between 2008 and 2019.
- Conversely, we find that seven CMAs in the rest of the province have experienced a lower job creation rate than the national average during this period. In five CMAs, job growth has been either negative or very low (less than 5 percent over the period analyzed).
- Non-CMA areas (smaller towns and rural areas) cumulatively experienced a significant (9.7 percent) drop in employment between 2008 and 2019.
- The combined population of CMAs where the job growth has been below the national average and people living in non-CMA areas is more than 3.7 million. If this group were its own province, it would be Canada’s fourth most populous—and be more populous than Atlantic Canada. As such, the challenges that this cluster of Ontario areas faces should be recognized as a national economic challenge.
- Because of the way economic performance diverges across Ontario, there may be information gaps among Ontarians and among policymakers about economic conditions elsewhere in the province. This bulletin aims to help close those information gaps.
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Ben Eisen
Senior Fellow, Fraser InstituteBen Eisen is a Senior Fellow in Fiscal and Provincial Prosperity Studies and former Director of Provincial Prosperity Studies at theFraser Institute. He holds a BA from the University of Toronto and an MPP from the University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy and Governance. Prior to joining the Fraser Institute Mr. Eisen was the Director of Research and Programmes at the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies in Halifax. He also worked for the Citizens Budget Commission in New York City, and in Winnipeg as the Assistant Research Director for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Mr. Eisen has published influential studies on several policy topics, including intergovernmental relations, public finance, and higher education policy. He has been widely quoted in major newspapers including the National Post, Chronicle Herald, Winnipeg Free Press and Calgary Herald.… Read more Read Less… -
Steve Lafleur
Steve Lafleur is a research director at the Institute for Research on Public Policy, a former senior fellow of theFraser Institute and a former senior policy analyst at the Fraser Institute. He holds an M.A. in Political Science from Wilfrid Laurier University and a B.A. from Laurentian University where he studied Political Science and Economics. He was previously a Senior Policy Analyst with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg and is a Contributing Editor to New Geography. His past work has focused primarily on housing, transportation, local government and inter-governmental fiscal relations. His current focus is on economic competitiveness of jurisdictions in the Prairie provinces. His writing has appeared in every major national and regional Canadian newspaper and his work has been cited by many sources including the Partnership for a New American Economy and the Reason Foundation.… Read more Read Less…
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