Thank you very much. I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you regarding precarious employment in Canada.
The labour market outcomes experienced by individuals in terms of quality of jobs and compensation are the key determinants of living standards. The traditionally preferred jobs are considered to be stable, full-time jobs with access to benefits. On the contrary, precarious employment often offers low pay and is relatively insecure, unstable and uncertain.
Several types of non-traditional employment that can capture the features of precarious employment are temporary positions including term or contract, casual or seasonal work, part-time positions, full-time employment with multiple jobs and unincorporated self-employment.
While full-time permanent positions remain the norm in Canada and the share of precarious employment in total employment has been relatively stable since 1997, at around 34%, there are some alarming shifts in the labour market that require special attention.
First, the stability and the proportion of precarious employment still mean a growing absolute number of workers in precarious work, which has climbed by 1.5 million from 1997 to 2018.
Second, full-time but temporary employment has grown by 63% since 1997, outpacing the 36% increase in total employment.
While term or contract employment, either full-time or part-time, has always been the largest component of temporary employment, there has been a shift towards more contract work over time. In particular, the number of Canadians employed in these types of jobs has almost doubled, accounting for a rise in contract work as a share of temporary positions, from 46% in 1997 to 53% in 2018.
Service industries, as a group, are the fastest-growing industries in Canada. The industry breakdown of temporary work shows that not only the lion's share of temporary employees is in the service industries' sector, but also that this sector has seen the largest growth in the amount of temporary work available. As a result, the share of temporary employees in service industries has climbed from 76% in 1997 to 83% in 2018.
Another dimension to the rise of precarious work, particularly in service industries, is the shift towards more part-time employment. Part-time employment has also grown by 32% since 1997, with almost no change in its share, and represents 45% of all precarious work and 15% of total employment in 2018.
The good news is that the number of involuntary part-timers has started to decline. The percentage of part-time workers who would prefer full-time employment was 22% in 2018, down from 28% in 2010.
Indeed, while trends in precarious employment are driven mainly by globalization, technology development, the shift towards services and the need for flexibility in business, more Canadians desire flexible work arrangements. In particular, demographic changes such as aging, greater labour force participation of women, and emphasis on higher education are playing key roles in this respect.
For example, older Canadians who are generally living longer, healthier lives have been a major contributor to the growth in part-time jobs and temporary work. For some individuals, temporary work has also been a stepping stone to full-time permanent employment.
However, poor compensation and employment uncertainty negatively affect the willingness to spend and delay family formation, a home purchase and saving for retirement. Learning from approaches to precarious employment in some European countries as provided in a C.D. Howe study in 2016 by Colin Busby and Ramya Muthukumaran highlights that Canada should turn its focus from rigid labour employment legislation that prevents job creation to polices that provide proper support for workers with precarious jobs.
Policy options to better address income and employment insecurity associated with precarious employment are improving employment insurance eligibility by adopting more balanced employment insurance eligibility requirements, both regionally and for workers in non-standard jobs; and ensuring uptake of the new Canada training benefit for workers in precarious employment.
The above-mentioned polices can provide policy-makers with options to mitigate the challenges faced by workers in precarious jobs and maintain a dynamic labour market outcome.
Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to your questions.