[1][5][7] Yalnizyan began her focus on labour market dynamics as a graduate student, when she was asked to be research assistant to Sylvia Ostry in 1983, who had just returned from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, after five years as their chief economist.
Ostry was researching the impacts of technological change and globalization on labour markets, and was one of the few mainstream economists at that time that paid attention to gender dynamics.
The Council had already documented the de-industrialization of Toronto, and many residents faced inadequate training and income supports given limited job opportunities.
This worsened after 1990, as jobless benefits were cut in four rounds of reforms by consecutive Conservative and Liberal federal governments.
Yalnizyan documented trends in full- and part-time job opportunities, working hours, incomes and labour adjustment policies, often adding a gendered analysis.
[10] After leaving the CCPA, Yalnizyan worked with the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Democracy, the Mowat Centre and Policy Horizons.
On May 13, 2018 the Atkinson Foundation announced that Yalnizyan accepted a two-year fellowship—Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers— for collaborative research on "policy innovation for inclusive economic growth in an era of rapid technological change".
[15] In June 2018 Yalnizyan was asked to be economic policy advisor to Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada Louise Levonian,[16] where she provided assistance with GBA+ (gender based analysis) and helped in the foresight and stress-testing process critical to ensuring income and labour adjustment programs that work well under different job market scenarios.
In 2010, Yalnizyan was invited to join a new Globe and Mail feature, the "Economy Lab",[6] which had Canadian economists write about economic issues in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008–09.
By 2010, Yalnizyan had "tracked trends in labour markets, income distribution, government budgets and access to services (particularly training and health care) for over 20 years.
[25] In her 2017 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives article on redistribution, Yalnizyan wrote that basic income models were market-based and focused on increasing money to access market freedom and choice.
In addition to being a regular contributor for the Globe and Mail's Economy Lab for four years, and more recently writing a regular business column for the Toronto Star, Yalnizyan has published widely in Canadian publications ranging from Macleans, the National Post, the Hill Times, Canadian Business and Zoomer.
Fraser defended the Parkland Institute and free speech, saying that the "university would not be intimidated by Klein's criticism, and would continue to foster a climate of open debate.