Work stoppages in the federal private sector : innovative solutions

Chapter 2: Person Days Not Worked in the Federal Private Sector

Addendum : Employees in the Federal and Provincial Sector: Technical Note

In order to compare the magnitude of work stoppages (frequency or duration) between federal and provincial sectors over time, a commonly used indicator is the number of person days not worked (PDNW) per 1,000 workers. While data on PDNW are readily available from the Workplace Information Directorate's database, the number of workers is not. The objective of this technical note is to explain the methodology used by the Research and Data Development Division to estimate these figures.

Federal Private Sector

The only source of information for the federal private sector is the Federal Jurisdiction Workplace Survey (FJWS), which covers the Canada Labour Code Part I (Private Sector plus Crown Corporations). However, the FJWS is only available for one year, i.e. 2004. To estimate the Canada Labour Code Part I employees from 2000 to 2007, we use the closest proxy, the Employment Equity Data from 2000 to 20061 by calculating the growth factors from 2000 to 2007.2 We then apply these growth factors forward and backward to the number of employees from FJWS 2004 under the assumption that the working population under Canada Labour Code Part I grows at the same rate as the total employees from Employment Equity Data.3 This assumption can be justified by the fact that 86% of the total surveyed employees in the FJWS belong to workplaces with 100+ employees. Subtracting the number of employees of the Crown Corporations (CANSIM Table 1830002) from the estimated numbers under Canada Labour Code Part I, we obtain the working population of the federal private sector.

Federal Public Sector

We add the number of employees of the Crown Corporations and Federal General Government provided by CANSIM Table 1830002 to obtain the total number of employees in the Federal Public Sector.

Provincial Public Sector

From CANSIM Table 1830002, we have nationwide employees in provincial and territorial governments; health and social service institutions; universities, colleges, vocational and trade institutions; local general governments; local school boards; provincial and local government business enterprises. The sum of all the above employees gives the working population of the Provincial Public Sector.

Provincial Private Sector

We start with the total number of non-farm employees for 2000 through 2007 from the historical review table for the Labour Force Survey 2007 (Table CD1T07an). After subtracting our estimated number of employees in the federal private sector, Federal Public Sector, and Provincial Public Sector, we end up with the total number of employees in the Provincial Private Sector.

Notes :

[1] Return to footnote 1 These data are extracted from LA 2000 database, which covers a wider range of employers under federal jurisdiction than FJWS (e.g. Federal Public Service organizations), but includes only workplaces with 100 or more employees.

[2] Return to footnote 2 We conservatively assume the growth factor for 2007 is the same as 2006 (rounded up to 1.01).

[3] Return to footnote 3 We used the Employment Equity number directly for Nunavut instead of applying the growth factors because they were abnormal.

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Date Modified:
2012-01-16