Author: Creig Lamb

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: March 2021

Using the latest survey data these reports examine how businesses have adapted to the pandemic, focusing on remote work, online sales and the demand for skills.

Authors: Creig Lamb + Dan Munro

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: July 2020

This article examines the importance of, and issues surrounding access to financing for intangible-intensive firms in Canada.

Authors: Creig Lamb

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: May 2020

This blog explores automation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authors: Dan Munro + Creig Lamb

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: December 2019

This foundational report provides a review of existing literature and data on intangible assets, with a focus on sources that reveal the unique behaviour of intangible investments, the increasing importance of these assets in developed economies, and key areas of policy and business strategy affected by the intangible shift. This work is conducted in consultation with a group of advisors and other experts who offer insight on the social, economic, and policy implications of intangibles.

Authors: Viet Vu + Creig Lamb + Rob Willoughby

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: December 2019

Using data from 7 million job postings collected by Burning Glass Technologies from January 2012 to December 2018, this report creates a new demand-driven taxonomy of digital skills and uncovers the specific digital and non-digital (including soft) skills that employers in Canada are seeking.

Leads: Dan Munro + Creig Lamb

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: December 2019 - Present

This research program will explore the many opportunities and challenges of the intangible economy in an effort to help leaders develop policies and strategies that position Canadian firms and workers to succeed.

Authors: Creig Lamb + Annalise Huynh + Viet Vu

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: October 2019

Lost and Found is a report that builds and tests a mixed-methods model to identify opportunities to transition individuals from jobs that are being disrupted, to local jobs that are not only growing, but pay well and are actually hiring. We also explore the many qualitative elements that need to be incorporated into such an analysis to ensure the pathways are actually viable in the real world.

Authors: Viet Vu + Creig Lamb + Asher Zafar

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: January, 2019

Who are Canada’s Tech Workers? closely examines tech workers across Canada and seeks to shed light on Canada’s tech occupations and the diversity and equity within them. Adding almost 200,000 new jobs since 2016, Canada’s highly-skilled tech workers are becoming a major component of Canada’s workforce.

Link to data viz

I manage the Skills for an Innovation-Driven Economy work stream at the Brookfield Institute. Through this work stream we seek to identify the skills that Canadians and innovative companies will need to remain competitive, and pilot programs that help them gain those skills – so that companies and workers alike can navigate and thrive in an innovation-driven economy.

An innovation economy needs a workforce with up-to-date skills. But as new technologies are introduced and the innovation economy grows, the skills sought by employers are continually shifting. It can be challenging for Canadians to know which skills they need to remain relevant throughout their careers. Employers themselves struggle to anticipate what their future needs might be.

Canadian businesses, educators, policy makers and others will need continuing and up-to-date insights on which skills are in high demand, in local labour markets and in different industries, as well as ideas on how to design effective training programs, ensure that Canadians can access them, and match talent to employer needs.

Authors: Creig Lamb; Dan Munro; Viet Vu

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: May 2018

Better, Faster, Stronger: Maximizing the benefits of automation for Ontario’s firms and people explores the risks and rewards automation poses for industries and workers in Ontario by examining trends in the economy as a whole, gathering local insights from across the province, and conducting an in-depth analysis of two key sectors in Ontario that are broadly representative of these trends — manufacturing and finance and insurance.

This report outlines the dual challenge technology advances present to Ontario’s economy — to simultaneously improve lagging technological adoption, while mitigating its negative impacts for some workers — and proposes a bold strategy to meet this challenge head on.

Authors: Creig Lamb + David Rubinger

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: December 2017

Stacking Up offers a detailed look at the lives of Canada’s developers, how they learned their craft, their arsenal of skills and how they stack up internationally.

As Canada continues to embrace technology to drive economic growth, we are continuously in need of a diverse and highly skilled talent pool. A critical component of tech talent are software developers, who collectively are a driving force behind Canada’s increasingly digital economy. As tech continuously advances and evolves, so does the role of the developer, making labour market information on this particular set of occupations challenging to monitor.

Authors: Julia Hawthornthwaite, Phillipa French, Creig Lamb, Caitlin Cassie

Publisher: Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity

Date: September 2017

The labour market shift: Training a highly skilled and resilient workforce in Ontario,  examines Ontario's changing labour market and skills, employer-driven training, and government skills training programs. Ontario’s labour market has changed. For Ontarians to remain resilient in face of this change, they must be equipped with skills that are transferable across occupations and sectors.

Authors: Creig Lamb + Matt Lo

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: June 2017

Automation Across the Nation: Understanding the potential impacts of technological trends across Canada examines the towns and cities across Canada with the highest likelihood to experience automation in the future.

Technological trends come with benefits and risks. On the one hand, they should be viewed as a major driver of economic growth and prosperity. On the other, technology poses potential risks – notably for workers responsible for job tasks that can now be automated.

As a large, economically diverse country, Canada will experience an uneven distribution of the risks of technological trends. This data insights report begins to identify how susceptible Canada’s different regional economies to automation. It aims to inform the design of policies and programs that seek to mitigate the potential negative impacts associated with rapidly advancing technology. This report is part of a series focused on the tension between innovation driven growth and inclusive economic growth, with a particular focus on the future of work and skills.

Authors: Creig Lamb + Sarah Doyle

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: March 2017

Future Proof is a report produced by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship (BII+E) in partnership with RBC that explores the implications of technological change on youth in Canada.

Technological trends—while always a critical driver of the economy—are reshaping Canada’s workforce. With a large number of jobs at risk of automation in the near future, including those held by some of the most vulnerable segments of Canada’s population, youth are facing higher skill and experience requirements than ever before. As a result, Canadian youth joining the labour market must come equipped with a broad suite of technical and soft skills to succeed.

To ensure Canada’s youth are adequately prepared for this new economic reality, new models that focus on both improving youth employment outcomes and building a stronger talent pipeline need to be explored.

Authors: Creig Lamb + Matthew Seddon

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: July 2016

The State of Canada’s Tech Sector, 2016 defines and examines the economic impact of Canada’s tech sector. The report states that the value of Canada’s tech sector has grown steadily, and that the sector itself is broader in scope than previous assessments, ranging from digital technologies, to aerospace and pharmaceuticals. It is a diverse, highly innovative sector that is also a significant economic driver. In 2015, the technology sector was directly responsible for $117 billion or 7.1 per cent of Canada’s economic output—greater than that of the finance and insurance industry.

The tech sector also has the key attribute of being a more dependable, less volatile, source of growth than the real estate, manufacturing, extractive industries and construction, which are currently Canada’s largest economic contributors.

Author: Creig Lamb

Publisher: Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship

Date: June 2016

The Talented Mr. Robot assessed the impact that technology may have on the Canadian labour force. It was covered by a number of news outlets, including: The Globe & Mail, CBC News, Toronto Star, Canadian Business, IT Business, Macleans, and Tech Vibes. The report was also cited by the Government of Canada's Advisory Council on Economic Growth, the Mowat Centre and the Maytree Foundation.

Author: Creig Lamb

Publisher: Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP)

Date: September 2015