No problem. I will slow down.
I'll just say that again. I'm looking at the educational profile of older workers, workers aged 65 to 74. The 2006 census data indicates that among older workers, the largest group is those with no high school education. The second-largest group is those with university education. Workers with less education are more likely to be low income and working due to economic hardship, who would prefer to retire if they had enough pension and income support. Workers with more education are more likely to report high job satisfaction and have higher incomes, which means they're more likely to be continuing working because they want to. Public policies should encourage the second circumstance; that is to say, it's preferable to have workers who are not in financial hardship but prefer to keep working into their 60s and 70s.
I just spoke about older workers, but if we look at all older adults, including those who are retired, we see another important trend. Among each educational category, older adults with university education are most likely to be working. So 25% of university-educated older adults are employed versus only 9% of older adults with no high school education—this is in Hamilton; the data in Canada is very similar.
If we want to increase workforce participation among older adults, we must first begin by increasing post-secondary access and completion for young people. This is key to ensuring the next generation will work for a longer period.
To ensure that today's youth extend their working lives into their 70s instead of retiring at 65, the federal government should consider, as a minimum, things such as adopting recommendations of the Assembly of First Nations with regard to increased funding for on-reserve schools and post-secondary access, and increasing funding for the Canada student loans program. I'm sure you've had other witnesses speak about other ways that the federal government can increase access and completion of post-secondary education.
The Canada job grant does not look that promising for older workers. We've heard a lot of concerns here in Hamilton that older workers are less likely to benefit from what was announced in the last budget. The required matching contribution from employers will favour younger workers because employers are less likely to invest their own training dollars in an older worker.
The second thing I want to speak about is the challenges faced by older workers in the labour market. The SPRC has many contacts with laid-off and unemployed older workers through research interviews we've done and poverty elimination committees that we are part of. Their experience is that older workers face significant age discrimination from employers. Secondly, the physical labour performed by many workers in Hamilton for decades has taken an enormous toll on their bodies and their health. Reintegrating these workers into labour markets would require not only retraining but also significant accommodation of workers' disabilities, which few employers are willing to do.
Lastly, I will speak about generational equity. We published a report recently about median employment incomes in Hamilton of the overall population and young workers. In 1976, young workers aged 20 to 24 used to earn about 68% of the median employment income in Hamilton. In 2010, young workers were only earning about 44% of the median employment earnings of the population.
Youth income has been declining for decades due to factors such as fewer hours of work, lower wages, longer time unemployed between contracts, and even the rise of unpaid internships. There's not enough data on that. We hope that Stats Canada will have the resources to look at that issue. Anecdotally we're worried that is a big problem.
This big crisis in generational equity is being ignored. Lower income for youth is leading young people to live longer with their parents, to delay starting a family, or to postpone buying a home. These all have very negative impacts on the economy, obviously. Precarious employment has negative effects on workers' physical and mental health, which increases costs to the health care system.
Unless policy changes are made to reverse these trends, low-income and precarious work means today's young workers will have very little of their own savings and be less likely to accumulate full CPP benefits. This means they will be more likely to need OAS and GIS when they retire. Delaying the age—