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Life expectancy: 80+

Canadians are living longer, according to Statistics Canada. The agency's data show combined life expectancy for men and women climbed past 80 in 2004. And men are catching up to women in terms of longer life. In 2004, life expectancy for men increased by 0.4 years to 77.8 years, while for women, it went up by 0.2 years to 82.6. Between 1979 and 2004, life expectancy among men rose 6.4 years, while among women, it increased 3.8 years.  Full article here.

Gen X will change work culture

A massive number of managers and executives, members of the Baby Boom generation, will retire in the next five years. This promises to leave a huge vacuum in leadership, particularly for companies without succession plans. Generation Xers are poised to take their place. A key question for senior executives to consider is whether the leadership style and values of Generation Xers are the same as those of the Baby Boomers.  Full article here.

Realtors look for high-tech edge

When Toronto real estate agent Monique Clement sets out to sell a house, she doesn't pile prospective buyers straight into a car and head out to tour properties – she asks them to click on a link, and then instructs them to sit back and enjoy. "The first time I used this, the client was blown away. It was so different from anything they'd seen in the past," she says. Video tours are the latest in sales devices being employed by agents to sell property over the internet, which itself has changed the way homes are sold. Source. 

Online networking

Online social networking sites are nothing new — in the pre-browser early '90s, computer geeks used Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to engage in animated discussions about Steve Jobs and the merits of the various Stars (Wars, Trek, Galactica). As a mass phenomenon, however, online networks have come into their own only recently.   Full article here.

BC & Quebec have highest percentage of low-income seniors

B.C. and Quebec had the highest percentage of low-income seniors among all 10 provinces in 2003, according to a report released Tuesday by Statistics Canada.  "A portrait of seniors in Canada" looks at the well-being and wellness of people across the country aged 65 and over.  According to a table that accompanies the report, 10.3 per cent of seniors in both B.C. and Quebec fell into the category of low income after taxes in 2003.  Full article here.

Boomers to reshape what it means to be a senior

Seniors in Canada are set to become even more diverse as a group with "millions of baby boomers knocking on the door," a report released Tuesday says.  In A Portrait of Seniors in Canada, Statistics Canada says what it means to be a senior could change in important ways when members of the baby boom generation turn 65 in a few years.  The report says the number of seniors in Canada is on the increase, seniors are living longer, the term "old age" now includes a period of 20 years or more, and being a senior for many people is a much different experience than it used to be.  Full article here.

Article from the Vancouver Sun.

Restaurants getting fat by stuffing patrons

The restaurant industry is promoting "extreme eating" with high-calorie, salt-stuffed food, putting Canadians' health serious risk, a consumer advocacy group says.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest says restaurants in Canada and the U.S. are contributing to an obesity problem by serving high-fat foods to consumers.  "When you go shopping, you see those handy nutrition fact labels on the sides of packages but when you're going to a restaurant, there's no such information, you're buying blind," Michael Jacobson, the centre's executive director, told CBC News on Tuesday. Source.

In depth:  Trans Fats

Health Canada:  Obesity

Payroll - Employment, earnings, and hours

In December, the average weekly earnings of payroll employees (seasonally adjusted) increased 0.1% to $757.27 from November. This leaves the year-to-date growth in earnings at 3.0%. This rate of change is obtained by comparing the 12-month average for 2006 with that of 2005, and is subject to revision for next month’s release.

In Canada’s largest industrial sectors, year-to-date earnings growth as of December was 3.6% for health and social assistance, 3.1% for educational services and 2.4% for manufacturing. There were 14,167,900 payroll jobs in Canada in December, an increase of 51,500 employees (+0.4%) from November. Most of the provinces showed increases in employment from November to December, with the largest percentage increases recorded in Alberta (+1.1%), Nova-Scotia (+0.6%), and New Brunswick (+0.6%).

The average hourly earnings for hourly paid employees edged up 0.1% in December to $18.58. The average weekly hours for hourly paid employees remained unchanged at 31.8 hours.  Source.

Education Matters: Insights

This issue of Statistics Canada’s free online publication Education Matters: Insights on Education, Learning and Training in Canada contains two articles.

The article "Educational services and the disabled child" presents the situation of children with disabilities in the school system, the kind of conditions for which they need special services, their use of the services and the barriers that may get in their way of obtaining such services.

Reducing the impact of distance on university participation by bringing university opportunities closer to where young people live, outside of major urban areas, has proven to be effective. This is what the second article, "If you build it, they will come: The impact of new universities on local youth", explores, on the basis of developments in the last 25 years in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

The publication Education Matters: Insights on Education, Learning and Training in Canada, Vol. 3 no. 5 (81-004-XIE, free) is now available online. From the Publicationsmodule, choose Free Internet publications, then Education, and finally Education Matters.  For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-307-3382 or 613-951-7608; fax: 613-951-4441; educationstats@statcan.ca), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.

Recent trends in output and employment

Several economic and statistical reasons explain why labour productivity did in fact slow last year, according to a new study.  The study examines reasons for one of the major economic developments in 2006 — the slowdown in growth of output, accompanied by steady gains in employment.  Typically, output exceeds employment growth by over 1%, reflecting the upward trend of productivity. The convergence of output and employment gains late in 2006 implied a slowdown in the growth of productivity. This study attempts to clarify why this happened.  Full article here.