A triple-A debt rating or not, a lack of quality job creation threatens the long-term viability of the Canadian economy.
Canada has so far escaped the wrath of debt-rating agencies now notorious for swinging their hammer (i.e. credit-rating downgrades) on economies facing high debt loads and political instability.But suppose that instead of assessing an economy’s health by its ability to incur and pay back debt, we rated a nation’s ability to create and maintain quality work. (That is, arguably, a stronger measure of how a nation can manage its overall debt levels anyway.) How, then, would Canada fare?
Statistics Canada’s offering of year-end employment data brought bad news on this front. The last quarter of 2011 saw a net drop of 55,000 jobs, one sign that our economy is sputtering. Nearly all growth was in part-time work.
So far this year, we haven’t fared much better. Job growth remains stagnant. National unemployment sits at 7.6 per cent (it was 6.2 per cent before the global recession hit) – an ominous sign of things to come.
The past 12 months have been economically challenging. For workers, 2011 was a year marked by continued employer restraint. Well-publicized struggles to maintain or reclaim decent pay and benefit and pension packets at Vale Inco, US Steel, Air Canada, and Canada Post epitomized this clash. The past year also offered a teaser of impending government austerity measures.
This undermining of quality jobs has continued into 2012, especially for workers at Caterpillar in London, Ont., and Rio Tinto Alcan in Alma, QC.
The intensity and frequency of workplace unrest may seem to have ramped up in recent years, but these underlying trends are nothing new. Quality jobs that provide a sense of security and stability along with decent wages and employer-provided benefits have been decaying for decades, in all sectors.
Today, one in three Canadians are considered “precariously” employed – that is, they have last-resort jobs that offer few guarantees for future earnings, constantly fluctuating work schedules, limited legislative protection, and that create the conditions preventing families from saving money, forcing many into debt to make ends meet.
The past 12 months have been especially troubling from this standpoint. Consider *the following:
- There were more temporary jobs recorded in Canada in 2011 than ever before. Nearly two million Canadians worked as temps, a 50-per-cent increase since 1997. The median hourly wage for temporary workers is currently $15 (compared to over $20 per hour for those classified as “permanent”).
- Fixed-term contract jobs increased by over 75 per cent over the same period, far outpacing the growth of permanent jobs (25 per cent).
- Part-time jobs continued to climb. Last year, nearly one in five Canadian workers held a part-time job, a figure that’s nearly doubled since the late 1970s.
- Manufacturing jobs hit an all-time low. In November of last year, these traditionally middle-income (high value-added) jobs currently hit a record low in Canada, accounting for less than 10 per cent of total employment.
- Retail is the lead employment sector. Today, over two million Canadians work in retail – more than any other industrial sector – and that number is rising steadily. The average retail wage in Canada is $14.82 – far lower than the $21.23 average found in manufacturing.
Although a simple snapshot, these labour-market trends are troubling. They have been on the rise since the 1980s, alongside a change in political-economic culture aimed at empowering the corporate class. They don’t appear to be reversing anytime soon. In fact, they are destined to get worse.
Governments have shown remarkably little interest in this latest jobs phenomenon that, according to Guy Standing, professor of social and economic security at the U.K.’s University of Bath, could prompt the rise of a dangerous new social class of worker: one that lacks meaningful attachment to their employment, is deprived of social-aid benefits (including unemployment insurance) simply because of their precarious status, and is likely to be caught between perpetual job insecurity and poverty.
Today, displaced workers desperate for jobs often can’t escape this trap of precariousness. This applies to those seeking to move off of social assistance and into paid employment.
The consequences of this for Canada’s long-term economic health are dire. Lower wages drain government tax coffers and whittle down household purchasing power. Insecure jobs make it harder for families to save, whether to buy a car, pay for a vacation, or plan for retirement. A decline in employer-funded benefits places greater stress on public services – those same public services that are facing cutbacks as governments continue to trim deficits. It’s a vicious cycle.
Those who sing the praises of Canada’s economic health need to take a careful, critical, and comprehensive look at today’s job-market trends to get a fuller picture of our increasingly precarious future.
Canada may boast a triple-A debt rating, but that’s got little to do with the long-term viability of our economy for working people. On the jobs front, something’s rotting at the core.
*Author’s calculations derived from Statistics Canada employment data.
Original Article
Source: the Mark
Author: Angelo DiCaro
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