Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Canadian labour turnover rates

Question
A student is looking for Canadian labour/employee turnover rates, broken down by industry. Are there any current surveys that would provide this data?

The best source I’ve found so far is the Labour Force Survey PUMF which identifies “Job leavers” in the “Flows into unemployment” variable (FLOWUNEM). Data can be cross-tabulated by broad industry using 21 NAICS codes (NAICS_21).

Am I overlooking a better source? I have seen mentions of other data sources in various Statcan publications:

Longitudinal Employment Analysis Program:  CANSIM tables from this data do not identify job leavers or turnover rate
Workplace and Employment Survey:  included data on turnover, but survey discontinued
Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours:  CANSIM tables available don’t seem to include data on turnover

I see that this question has been asked before (see archived answer from 2007 in DIGRS), but I wondered what the best source would be now?

I noticed some discussion of a new Statcan survey funded by ESDC which would include turnover data, but (as of 2014) the findings had not been released. I’m not sure which survey the following sources are referring to, nor whether the data is available now:

Drummond, D. (2014, June). Wanted: Good Canadian labour market information. IRPP Insight, 6. Retrieved from Institute for Research on Public Policy website, http://irpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/insight-no6.pdf
“ESDC has piloted a workplace survey that focuses on skills shortages, hard-to-fill vacancies, employment and turnover.” (p. 13)

Bradshaw, J., & Grant, T. (2014, April 22) Lack of funds keeps Statscan study from public. Globe and Mail. Retrieved from.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/lack-of-funds-keeps-statscan-study-from-public/article18088971/


Answer
The Labour Statistics Division has confirmed that the LFS cannot produce turnover rates. Unfortunately the also confirmed that do not know of any survey in Statistics Canada that could produce this.