Real Estate Institute of BC - Your Assurance of Real Estate Excellence

Most of us are aware of the labour force challenges Canada is facing – challenges resulting from three decades of below replacement level birth rates and the leading edge of the baby boom generation reaching the retirement stage of the lifecycle.

Many other countries such as Italy, Japan, Germany, and Russia have been coping with declining working-aged populations for years. Recent projections show that many other major market economies will begin to see their working-aged populations decline: The Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland and France are all expected to see this segment of their populations start to decline by 2012. Perhaps not as well known is that a similar situation is expected for China by 2017. In the five years after 2017 China’s working-aged population is expected to contract by a staggering 10 million people. As a point of comparison, this equates to almost two-thirds of Canada’s currently employed labour force.

The Institute’s new report Trends Beyond the Horizon, Trends Beyond Demographics: The Changing Nature of Work, Workers, and the Workplace briefly examines the demographic futures facing the world’s top countries and explores ways to mitigate the impacts of future labour challenges.

To read the report, click here.