Measurement of labour market attachment in the northern Canadian context: Conceptual and methodological issues

Strong attachment to the labour market is widely recognized as a source of economic empowerment and a crucial pathway out of poverty and as such is attentively measured and closely monitored. The conventional approach to the measurement of labour market attachment in Canada is based on a priori assumptions that specify what constitutes the labour market activity and inactivity. This paper takes a critical look into the conceptual and methodological basis behind this conventional approach and highlights some important issues related to its application to the northern Canadian context, focusing in particular on living conditions in Inuit communities and comparing them to those in southern large urban centers. The paper calls for an empirical examination of these issues, arguing that the dividing line between economically active and marginally attached subgroups of working age population residing in the northern Inuit communities is likely to be more blurred than that of self-identifying Aboriginal population residing off-reserve in large urban centers due to significant differences in the institutional arrangements between northern and southern labour markets.