Long term job growth may not be in low wage service industries, which is the myth. People think the only jobs around are these low wage service industry jobs. I bought some Statistics Canada data and found out a couple of things.
Low wage employment is not going up disproportionately in Canada. Statistics Canada data is that people at less than $12 an hour is going down but this would actually be with inflation.
Businesses with less than 20 employees, a main offender of the low wage problem are actually down a bit. In the 10 years between 1997 and 2007 these small businesses share of the jobs total went down 2%, from 35% to 33%.
Some 23% of workers earn $12 an hour or less as of 2007.
Businesses with 50 to 500 employees are growing proportionately as are businesses with over 500 employees. The big businesses are not downsizing generally - in the 1997 to 2007 data. Big businesses tend to have deeper pockets and pay better.
Statistics Canada has detailed information on employment by industry. In the 1991-2008 expansion there were booms. Gas and oil, housing construction and manufacturing driven by a low dollar had booms and are now bust. You have boom and bust sectors. This is definitely part of the jobs landscape.
Going forward Canada can continue to grow without going backward. It'd be better if we could downsize the less than $12 sector though.