People see what happened in Louisiana, and all the people over there that the government was not able to take care of.

Look for manufacturing employment to continue to decline in the coming quarters -- a clear negative for overall employment quality.

Canadians of all age groups are not saving enough actively by putting money aside for a rainy day. How much savings is enough is a matter for debate, but most Canadian households would likely benefit from building a little nest egg.

The practical implication of this environment is that young Canadians must start saving very early in their lives, compared to previous generations in order to realize the same inflation-adjusted return on their savings. Our findings suggest this is not happening.

Granted, a low-quality job is better than no job, but the headline employment figures exaggerate the real strength of the Canadian labor market.

There are two ways of seeing quality decline. One is that you lose high-quality jobs or you gain low quality jobs, and that is exactly what's happening.

So I will not be surprised to see consumption of other items going down, like people taking less vacations, spending less on furniture, or any other items that are non-essential.

Relying solely on real estate-based savings may be dangerous because this type of saving can be illiquid and selling a home can be an inconvenient and expensive transaction.