Thank you for having me here today.
I am here today speaking on behalf of the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario research group, PEPSO, which I co-lead with Michelynn Lafleche from United Way Toronto. PEPSO is a joint university-community research group based at McMaster and United Way Toronto.
The focus of PEPSO's research is the impact of changing labour market outcomes and the shift to less secure forms of employment on household well-being and community participation. Based on a survey of over 4,000 individuals in the GTA-Hamilton region, we released a report titled “It's More Than Poverty” in early 2013, which documented the social implications of changing work patterns.
If, as many now argue, we are moving away from a labour market where the majority of workers are employed in stable long-term employment relationships to one of less permanent short-term employment relationships, then the findings in “It's More than Poverty” foreshadow a very different society than the one we live in today.
It is through the lens of our report that I wish to address the issue of youth employment.
When speaking of youth employment, we are immediately attracted to the exact opposite: the high level of youth unemployment. Last month, 13.6% of young people aged 15 to 24 were unemployed, double the national average.
While this is undoubtedly a concern, we need to be even more concerned about the characteristics of the pool of jobs that the other 86% of employed young workers share, and the kinds of jobs young people will move into as they grow older.
While we can only speculate on what the future holds, the evidence is clear that young workers are off to a slow start compared to earlier generations, and the changes we are seeing in adult employment today point to a very different future for young workers when compared to their parents. There are many good jobs available to young people today, but on average, young people start at lower salaries and are less likely to find a job with long-term prospects.
It is this shift to precarious employment that was the focus of “It's More Than Poverty”. Only half of our sample aged 25 to 65 were in full-time jobs with one employer, jobs that paid benefits and that they expected to hold a year from now. Even fewer newcomers and racialized workers were in such jobs.
These were exactly the kinds of jobs that much of the Canadian economy was built around in the post-World War II period. Our survey participants not employed on a full-time basis were paid less, were less likely to receive benefits or a pension plan, and were less likely to receive training from their employer. They were more likely to delay family formation and more likely to report anxiety at home, and they faced more challenges in participating in community life. This is the likely future of many young workers today.
In light of these changes, we need to be bold. We need to think about what we're doing in the next decade and how it will shape the future of Canada. We need to re-evaluate how we regulate labour markets and support families.
The old model of one worker per household, in a permanent secure job with benefits, is becoming less common. The old model of unions organized around one employer and one workplace is becoming less applicable as workplace communities are fractured by temporary work arrangements, outsourcing, and rapid technical change.
An unemployment system designed to support people during temporary periods of slack activity has become less relevant to workers moving between jobs on a regular basis. A pension program relying on employer-funded pension plans is less viable when workers no longer have a long-term commitment to a single employer. A training program relying on employers to train junior workers no longer works when the junior workers are temp workers or contract workers and the employer has no expectation that they will be tomorrow's senior workers.
It's unlikely that we'll ever go back to a 1970s labour market of permanent full-time employment with benefits and of households organized around a primary breadwinner. What is needed are new institutional arrangements that reflect the changing nature of labour market outcomes.
Countries such as Denmark have pioneered a system referred to as “flexicurity”: flexible employment for employers, but generous income support and retraining for those moving between jobs. Denmark's economy is highly productive and innovative, boasting one of the most satisfied workforces in Europe despite also featuring one of the highest levels of job churning in Europe.
Over the next 12 months, the PEPSO research group will bring together a panel of employers, unions, employees, community representatives, and academics to discuss changes made necessary by the shift to less permanent employment. Our discussions will be based on a document we have prepared that reviews the hundreds of proposals and implemented policies that address the changing nature of labour markets. While our policy research is in its preliminary stages, it has already revealed dozens of innovative solutions, solutions that we look forward to sharing with you in the near future.
Thank you.