Canada's Labor Market Data Crisis: Private Platforms Dominate, Hinder Policy-Making
Canada's labor market is facing challenges in data transparency and control, with private platforms like Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn dominating the job search landscape. A lack of real-time, comprehensive data is hindering effective policy-making and job matching.
Canada spends millions on labor surveys but lags behind in utilizing modern data sharing methods. The federal Job Bank, established in 1976, has not been rebuilt for the era of search indexes and API feeds, leading job seekers to rely on these private platforms. These platforms monetize Canadian labor market data through pay-per-click ads and recruiter subscriptions, and they also surveil users and curate job listings based on data extraction and engagement.
The Canadian labor market is highly concentrated, with these three platforms controlling real-time labor market data, which they use to inform immigration targets, reskilling funds, and industrial investments. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada still bases all official labor market indicators on its own surveys, but it lacks recent, specific government labor market data or 'fitness' assessments for the Canadian workforce.
AI tools are increasingly used to screen job applicants, which can alienate and frustrate job seekers. Private platforms like Burning Glass and Vicinity Jobs scrape job postings at scale, offering insights that Canadian policymakers must pay to access. To address these issues, Canada could improve labor market matching by making job postings more transparent, sharing real-time data with educational institutions, and addressing the issue of 'ghost jobs' that employers never intend to fill.
A modernized Job Bank could serve as Canada's 'public labor API,' transparent, comprehensive, and built for interoperability, while complementing local or sector-specific portals. This would help Canada regain control of its labor market data, improve policy-making, and enhance job seekers' experiences. However, achieving this will require significant investment in updating Canada's labor market data infrastructure.
