BREAKING Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
Trials of a shorter working week in Iceland have been hailed as an "overwhelming success" by researchers.
Public sector employees taking part in two large trials between 2015 and 2019 worked 35-36 hours per week, with no reduction in pay. Many participants had previously worked 40 hours a week.
The trials run by Reykjavík City Council and the national government saw worker wellbeing "dramatically" increase across a range of indicators, from perceived stress and burnout, to health and work-life balance, according to researchers from think tank Autonomy and research organization the Association for Sustainable Democracy (Alda).
The trials involved 2,500 people — more than 1 per cent of Iceland's working population — and were aimed at maintaining or increasing productivity while improving work-life balance. Researchers found that productivity and services stayed the same or improved across the majority of workplaces.
Autonomy and Alba, which advocate for a shorter working week, analyzed the data from the trials.
Following the trials, Icelandic trade unions negotiated reductions in working hours for tens of thousands of their members across the country.
Some 86 per cent of Iceland's entire working population is now working shorter hours, or have gained the right to shorten their working hours, according to Autonomy and Alda.
Will Stronge, director of research at Autonomy, said the public sector trial "was by all measures an overwhelming success."
"It shows that the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks — and lessons can be learned for other governments," he said.
Daiga Kamerade, associate professor of work and wellbeing at the U.K.'s University of Salford, told CNN Business that while the trial was encouraging, studying public sector organizations that may have better working conditions than the private sector could have affected the results.
"Reducing the working week from 40 to 35-36 hours is a first step towards a shorter working week, we need similar large-scale trials that push this reduction further — for example, looking at a true four days working week of 32 hours or less," she said.
CNN Business has reached out to the Icelandic government and Reykjavík City Council for further comment.
Kamerade said that in her own research, her team explored the motivations of working reduced hours, and found that working less is perceived as having more control and freedom in one's life, which can then increase wellbeing.
A growing number of small companies have already adopted a shorter working week — and now, bigger corporations are investigating the potential benefits of the change.
Unilever New Zealand announced in December that it would trial a four-day workweek at full pay, following a change in working habits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Microsoft trialed a four-day workweek in Japan in 2019, and said productivity, measured by sales per employee, went up by almost 40 per cent compared to the same period the previous year.
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Recent injected drugs like Wegovy and its predecessor, the diabetes medication Ozempic, are reshaping the health and fitness industries.
Two military horses that bolted and ran miles through the streets of London after being spooked by construction noise and tossing their riders were in a serious condition and required operations, a British government official said Thursday.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.