Canadian Public Policy – Special Issue on Structural Aspects of Unemployment in Canada

With the decline in demand-deficient unemployment in Canada during the 1990s, the relative importance of structural unemployment increased. This special issue of Canadian Public Policy contains revised versions of papers presented at the CSLS conference on the structural aspects of unemployment, held in Ottawa on April 22-23, 1999, which the CSLS organised at the request of Finance Canada and Human Resources Development Canada. The papers address the definition of structural unemployment, trends in the 1990s, the magnitude of labour market mismatch, youth unemployment, lessons for Canada from international experience, and policies to reduce structural unemployment. A key finding is that the Canadian labour market encountered no structural barriers as the unemployment rate fell during the 1990s, and that institutional reforms and demographic developments significantly lowered the structural rate of unemployment.