I think we'll start with a very quick definition of literacy. When we talk about literacy, people still tend to use the word “illiteracy”. In the literacy field, we don't talk about illiteracy anymore. There are very few people out there who still use an X for their signature, although there are some, believe me. We talk more about skill levels.
We talk about our literacy challenges. Recently there was an international adult literacy and skills survey. It was conducted in 2003 and released to the public in 2005, and it painted a picture of skills proficiencies across the country. What we saw were devastating statistics around the literacy levels that Canadians had in 2003, but I'm sure they're still the same in 2006.
Just to give you a very small piece of some of those statistics, they were broken down into five different components. Most of the statistics talk about prose literacy, because it's the most common one that people understand. It's just straightforward document reading.
There are five levels of skill proficiency. Level three is deemed to be what people need to function well to be successful in today's society. We had 18.8% of those aged 16 to 65 in our provinces scoring at level one, 31.6% scored in level two, 43% of our youth aged 16 to 25 scored below level three, and 61.1% of our population aged 16 to 65 scored below level three in numeracy. It's staggering to realize that there were such low levels of literacy and skills proficiency still in existence in 2003.
This is not isolated to Newfoundland and Labrador, although we are on the lower end when it comes to literacy skills. It is a huge problem all across the country: 42% of Canadians score in level one and level two. That's 42% of Canadians who do not function well in today's knowledge-based, technologically advanced society.
This obviously has a huge impact on employment. How can it not? Jobs require skills. We are advancing every day, more and more, toward technology information databases. Everything is in print form, for the most part. Everything is advancing with computers and other forms of technology. People need to have higher levels of skills. People who don't have those skills are being left behind on a daily basis.
Studies have shown that adults with low literacy skills are less likely to be employed. I don't think that's a shocker. If you're functioning at a level one, how do you get a job? How do you read an ad to find out where the jobs are? How do you fill out an application? How do you do a resumé?
Once you find a job, low literacy skills tend to hamper any training if it's available, and any form of advancement. If you get into the entry level and you have to do training to advance, you're likely not going to get it, because you just don't have the skills to move on.
Employees with low literacy skills tend to earn less. There's a clear pattern. The higher your level of literacy skills, the more you're going to earn. Then, you're disadvantaged if you get in and get a job. You're probably not going to earn a living wage, especially if you're at level one.
One minute?