Aboriginal Canadians Will Account for a Growing Part ofLabour Force Growth in CanadaPress Release – Ottawa, October 2, 2017
The Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) today released a report entitled“The Contribution of Aboriginal People to Future Labour Force Growth in Canada” by Don
Drummond, Alexander Murray, Nicolas Mask and Andrew Sharpe. The report contributes to thedebate on closing socio-economic gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people byprojecting the contribution of Aboriginal people to future labour force growth in Canada as awhole and by region under various scenarios over the 2011-2036 period.
Key findings of the report are highlighted below:
 In 2011, the Aboriginal or Indigenous population accounted for 3.5 per centof the total Canadian working age population and this population is growing much
faster than the non-Indigenous population. In the unlikely scenario that the trend
toward more Indigenous people declaring their heritage were to stop, theIndigenous population’s share in the total Canadian working-age population
would rise to 4.4 per cent of Canada’s working-age population by 2036. If thetrend continues, the share would rise to 5.6 per cent.
 The labour force participation rate of Indigenous people in 2011 was almost 5
percentage points below that of the non-Indigenous population. More critically,
the gap for the 15-24 age group, which will contribute much of the future labour
force growth, was 12.4 percentage points. If the Indigenous labour force
participation rate gaps close and the trend toward declaring Indigenous heritage
continues, Indigenous people will contribute more than one-fifth of all the labour
force growth in Canada through 2036.
 The Indigenous population is much younger than non-Indigenous Canadians
and this accounts for much of the Indigenous contribution to labour force growth.
Among Indigenous people, 28.8 per cent were below age 15 in 2011. The

corresponding share for the non-Indigenous population was 16.6 per cent. This
demographic profile illustrates how much more concentrated in the working years
the Indigenous population will be over the next few decades.
 The contribution of the Indigenous people to future labour force growth in the2011-2036 period is even starker in certain regions: 83 per cent in the NorthernRegion comprised by the three territories; 72 per cent in Saskatchewan and 52 percent in Manitoba. These higher contributions reflect not only the concentration of
the Indigenous population, but as well much higher-than-national labour force
participation rate gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
 The labour force participation rate is just one of the socio-economic gaps
between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians that needs to be addressed.
Indigenous people also face deficiencies in hours worked, employment, income
by level of education and health among others. Progress must be based on
Indigenous autonomy and this in turn will require strengthening administrativeand managerial capacities, most likely under new institutional arrangements.
The report is posted at http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2017-07.pdf.
For further information, please contact:
Andrew Sharpe
Executive Director, Centre for the Study of Living Standards
613-233-8891
andrew.sharpe@csls.ca
Don Drummond
Chair, Centre for the Study of Living Standards
613-692-9105 or 613-406-9105
drummond@queens.ca
The Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) is a national, independent, Ottawa-based
not-for-profit research organization. Its primary objective is to contribute to a better
understanding of trends and determinants of productivity, living standards, and economic wellbeing in Canada through research.