Category: Legal Law Jobs

Temporary layoffs can be a necessary element of operating a business in Canada. Employers faced with a shortage in available work may need to reduce staffing in the short term to control costs, with the goal of preserving jobs in the long term.

Temporary layoffs are common in some industries and rare in others. They may be driven by cyclical changes in business demand or extraordinary events like the COVID-19 pandemic. Whatever the reason, employers should be aware of applicable laws before taking this step. This legal update reviews the laws applicable to temporary layoffs, with particular attention to rules in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and the federal sector.

What is a “temporary layoff”?

Employment standards statutes across Canada provide for “temporary layoffs.” These enable an employer to serve an employee off work for a limited period of time, typically without terminating the employment relationship. The employee generally is not

Legal employment had a rocky second quarter, despite generally strong US job growth, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Legal employment levels contracted by 5.1% in Q2, from 1.89 million to 1.79 million, while the overall job market enjoyed its 18th straight month of expansion.

For the first time in the pandemic era, BLS reported quarterly employment losses in three major legal employment job classifications: From Q1 to Q2, lawyer employment contracted from 1.15 million to 1.07 million; paralegal employment dipped slightly from 452,000 to 449,000; and legal support employment shrunk from 88,000 to 65,000.

Legal employment for both men and women also fell in the second quarter from a quarterly average of 908,000 in Q1 to 840,000 in Q2 for menand from 984,000 in Q1 to 955,000 in Q2 for women.

The dip in employment numbers represent a trend reversal from the past three quarters,