By Carolyn Girard
News that Canada has reached its lowest unemployment level in 30 years may seem like an occasion for rejoicing, however this news shouldn’t evoke rosy thoughts and a pat on the back for our economy.
Despite low unemployment, there is still a lack of skilled, full-time jobs for new and young Canadians, especially in Ontario where over 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2002.
Statistics Canada reports that most of the job growth over the past few years has been in the service sector, which translates into low-paying, unstable, and unskilled jobs, devoid of benefits and not providing enough income for employees to put aside.
The brunt of unhappy workers are either immigrants or young workers typically hailing from commerce, arts and humanities programs, the report continues.
One reason why many workers in minimum-wage service sector jobs are unhappy is because they are overqualified.
A 2004 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, says that nearly 50 per cent of Canada’s population is educated at the post-secondary level.
After years of education and thousands of dollars spent, it is no mystery as to why many workers are dealing with negative psychological effects of a low-wage job.
Statistics Canada says many people share the same thought that “for the nation as a whole (…) it represents an underutilization of human capital.”
Young workers are not the only group suffering from a lack of opportunity to fully exercise their skills. Immigrant workers make up a large portion of the discussion too.
Nearly half of working immigrants can’t get a job related to their skills either because of a lack of Canadian work experience or a rejection of their foreign qualifications. Instead of practicing medicine for example, as a doctor would have been doing in his home country, upon arrival he has to deliver pizzas.
It would help this country to tap into these skilled labourers to help provide services that are greatly lacking. One solution would be creating more accessible and affordable training programs or courses to help immigrants obtain the necessary upgrades. That way they could have their foreign qualifications recognized as valid.
The service sector, which many workers find unrewarding, piggy-backs on a style of work that purposely stripped away innovation.
When Henry Ford created the assembly line, revolutionizing the automobile industry , he reduced workers to one task, making production more effective but essentially making work repetitive and preventing workers from variety or opportunity to improve the workplace.
This work model has left an imprint which can still be seen to varying extents today. Despite modifications and improvement, productivity over care is still evident where workers are required to perform specific tasks in a prescribed fashion, like cashiers at a fast food restaurants or retail stores who must give the same rehearsed phrases to every customer.
Minimum wage jobs provide barely enough income to pay the bills because of increased living and transportation costs. Even with the expected increase to $8 an hour in Februrary, good luck trying to save for a stable future.
Perhaps if these jobs paid a much higher minimum wage – say at least $5 more than the $8 planned for February – then perhaps employees would feel better about working unskilled labour jobs like making sandwiches and serving coffee. At least they could have the reassurance that while they’re missing out on company benefits and pension plans, they make enough to start some savings on their own. Then, if eventually they are able to find satisfactory work in their field, they won’t be so financially far behind.