The Changing Nature of Work in Canada and Other Developed Countries: What Do the Trends Over Time Tell Us?

This chapter describes changes in various dimensions of work in Canada and around the world. It reviews the research examining changes in the self-reported psychosocial work characteristics of labor force participants across a number of countries. The chapter focuses on changes in psychosocial working conditions. It argues that new systems of work arrangements, such as lean production and flexible work arrangements have had certain unforeseen impacts on the psychosocial working conditions of labor market participants. The chapter presents changes in the nature of work using data from the Canadian Labor Force Survey, from the years 1976 through to 2003. It discusses all Canadian; there is no reason to believe that the Canadian labor market is significantly different from the US labor market or other labor markets in developed economies around the world. In addition to a lack of data collection, the measurement of changes in psychosocial working conditions is hampered by concurrent confounding changes in the labor market.