Income inequality (and wealth inequality) has been worsening in Canada over recent decades. Growing income polarization, while morally unjust, has real (and negative) social consequences. A decline in good, well-paying, jobs will only fuel this disparity. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has tracked this phenomenon through its ground-breaking Growing Gap Project.
Many young worker and student advocates have raised concern in recent years regarding the misclassification of workers (mostly young student workers) as ‘interns’. This practice has enabled some employers to hire workers and provide them training or ‘real-life’ work experience, in lieu of wages.
A growing list of researchers and policy analysts suggest the more substantial challenges facing young workers is ‘under-employment’, or the under utilization of skills possessed by new workers and students entering the labour market.
There are significant economic and social costs to long-term youth unemployment. Lower overall career earnings, less opportunity for skills development are lower career prospects are obvious concerns. Recent studies have even pointed to a severe ‘scarring’ effect chronic unemployment has on young people, fostering feelings of distrust among social and political institutions and stoking unrest.
In 2013, 387,000 young people (between 15 and 24 years old) looked, but couldn’t find a job. The youth unemployment rate – while having declined from 15% to 13.7% in recent years – is still frustratingly high.
Canada’s job market performance has been underwhelming since the 2008 recession. Un- and underemployment remains frustratingly high, in many regions of the country.
It is well-documented that racialized individuals disproportionately experience low-wage and precarious work. At the same time, diversity and inclusion are becoming increasingly recognized as important drivers of growth and innovation. There are serious economic and social costs to allowing a colour coded labour market to develop in any jurisdiction. In spite of the trend some companies are discovering just how beneficial diversity and inclusion can be.
Too many retailers believe that they must offer bad jobs to keep prices low. As a result, a growing number of workers suffer low wages, poor benefits, constantly changing schedules and few opportunities for advancement. But many researchers and retail managers are finding that good jobs, with better pay and more predictable hours, are actually good for the bottom line.
Climate change is happening. How Canada responds will have important and far-reaching implications for the environment, the economy and the labour market.
For too many people in Canada today, the dream of landing a good job is out of reach. For an increasing number, jobs that were once considered ‘stable’ – with decent wages, benefits and working conditions – are under threat. Good jobs appear to be falling off the economic map.
TORONTO, March 27, 2015 /CNW/ - Canada's largest union in the private sector, and the leading union in the auto sector, will release an independent study Monday examining the economic impact of the General Motors plant in Oshawa.
TORONTO, March 25, 2015 /CNW/ - With more than 280 jobs on the line, Unifor held a protest at the offices of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority today. The union is calling on the GTAA to require offers of employment to the low-wage workers that will be out of a job due to a change in the contract for those who service seniors and passengers with special needs at the airport.
TORONTO, March 24, 2015 /CNW/ - Unifor will hold a rally at the offices of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) to protest the layoff of more than 280 low-wage workers who service passengers who require extra assistance.
"The GTAA has a choice—it can give job security to the workers who service passengers with special needs and seniors, or it can toss them into unemployment," said Jerry Dias, Unifor's National President.
SYDNEY, NS, March 20, 2015 /CNW/ - Staff at Town Daycare in Glace Bay have ratified a new collective agreement with their employer after four days on strike.
