It had to be scary. The water was deep and choppy. Yet it was all that separated the 500 migrants seeking a better life. Taking this risky boat ride meant a chance at a decent job and sending some money to family members left behind.
Like so many other migrants, their choices were limited. Stay and try and survive in their home country where jobs and prosperity really don't exist, or get on an overcrowded boat at the urging of smugglers and labour brokers making promises about high-paying jobs and abundant work.
Employment and labour
On March 25, 2014, CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan was among the witnesses who testified to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance as part of the committee’s ongoing study of youth unemployment. This publication is the report that was submitted to the committee. In it, she outlines several measures the Federal Government could take to reduce youth unemployment.
Hennessy’s Index is a monthly listing of numbers, written by the CCPA's Trish Hennessy, about Canada and its place in the world. For other months, visit: http://policyalternatives.ca/index
Ontario's slow recovery from the global recession is compounded by a deeper shift in the province's labour market that has left no region untouched.
Every economic region in Ontario has lost at least 18 per cent of the manufacturing jobs that existed in 2000.
In relative terms, Northwestern Ontario lost the most – 60 per cent of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2013. Kitchener-Waterloo and Barrie saw the smallest relative decrease in manufacturing jobs at 18.5 per cent.
A recovery strategy that aims to put Ontario back where it was in 2007 means no progress for women. Women had lower levels of employment and higher levels of poverty before, during and after the recession.
Young women were among the biggest losers during the recession - experiencing nearly double the rate of decline in their employment as young men.
At the other end of the spectrum, the numbers of women who stayed in the workforce after age 65 doubled betwen 2007-2013.
TORONTO – Ontario's labour market woes can't be blamed on a recession hangover – the underlying trouble is a long-term, seismic shift that requires new policy answers, says a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Ontario (CCPA-Ontario).
Seismic Shift: Ontario's Changing Labour Market examines Ontario's labour market since 2000 – the height of the Canadian dollar and the beginning of the province's manufacturing decline. It finds the very nature of work is changing – rapidly.
Ontario’s labour market woes can’t be blamed on a recession hangover – the underlying trouble is a long-term, seismic shift that requires new policy answers, says a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Ontario (CCPA-Ontario).
Seismic Shift: Ontario’s Changing Labour Market examines Ontario’s labour market since 2000 – the height of the Canadian dollar and the beginning of the province’s manufacturing decline. It finds the very nature of work is changing – rapidly.
By substantially raising EIA shelter rates and increasing child care spaces, new apprenticeship programs and support to social enterprises, the province is taking action to assist low income people to overcome barriers to education and employment.
This edition of Work Life forms part of the research by CCPA’s National Office for an upcoming report, "Working across Canada" which will analyze quantitative and qualitative data to determine where workers are more likely to have decent jobs and be protected by adequate employment and labour standards.
Young people today in Canada face a reality vastly different from the one 20 or 30 years ago, economically and socially. This paper examines how young workers are experiencing various changing realities such as: student debt, precarious employment (unemployment, under-employment, and unwaged work), reduced job security (including unionization), rising inequality, changing wealth/debt dynamics and, less quantifiably, diminished social cohesion and community connection as a result of growing insecurity.