Archive for the ‘Employment Delivery System’ Category
Where Did All the Workers Go? 60 Years of Economic Change in 1 Graph
Jan 26 2012
The big story about American jobs in the post-war period is this: The manufacturing/agriculture economy shrunk from 33% to 12%, and the services economy grew from 24% to 50%… as manufacturing and agriculture got more efficient, they required fewer American workers, while the services industry (which had slower efficiency gains since it has more person-to-person work) required more employees to keep up with the rising demand for consulting, nurses, teachers, computer technicians… Manufacturing jobs have declined as a share of the economy. But manufacturing hasn’t declined as an industry. It’s grown. By a lot.
Tags: economy, globalization
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Minimum wage hike key to cutting poverty
Dec 17 2011
“The government says the best route out of poverty is a job… But people working full time earning minimum wage are still having trouble paying the bills… And enforcement is key to ensuring workers get what they are owed. “Any initiative the government takes to alleviate poverty for low wage workers has to be backed up by enforcement”… The report urged Ontario’s labour ministry to proactively target employers in high-violation industries such as hospitality, cleaning, retail and construction, which attract newcomers, young workers, visible minorities and other vulnerable workers.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Fixing the Hole in E. I.
Dec, 6, 2011
Many unemployed Canadians are ineligible for Employment Insurance, so that welfare becomes their only alternative… applicants must exhaust their financial assets, and the paternalistic requirements of welfare are stigmatizing. As a consequence, it is difficult to bounce back from welfare into the economic mainstream… Something is needed between Employment Insurance, with its relatively higher benefits but limited reach, and welfare, to which anyone in need can apply but only for inadequate benefits.
Tags: economy, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Employment Insurance system unjust and inefficient, report finds
Nov. 15, 2011
Fewer than half of jobless Canadians get EI. That’s down from about 80 per cent in the mid-1990s, when Ottawa made the program less generous to save money. “The number of people outside Canada’s social safety net is growing and growing,” said Mr. Mendelsohn, an academic and former top federal and Ontario government official… In some parts of the country, work is scheduled around the seasons to squeeze the more out of EI. It isn’t efficient, says Arthur Sweetman… People are sitting at home when they could be productive.” Employers have also learned to exploit the system.
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living
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Is our EI system broken?
Nov 15 2011
… the EI system is complex, opaque and not easily understood by contributors. It says the current program has failed to keep up with societal and economic change and it’s widely recognized that there are deep problems at the core of the system. Too many people, it says, are being left out of the social safety net, too many are carrying an unfair burden and too many are not achieving their potential.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Ontario’s youth unemployment: We must step up the economic growth agenda
Sep. 13, 2011
With an unemployment rate (15.7 per cent) nearly double that of the average worker in the province, the number also masks the permanent effects that long-term high unemployment rates can bring. The list notably includes: (1) lower lifelong earnings… (2) the misallocation of talent… and (3) the psychological toll that ends up hurting not only the young workers themselves but their families and friends… To reverse that stubbornly high rate of unemployment for our young, we need to step up the growth agenda and leave aside any talk of micro-economic miracles.
Tags: economy, youth
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New Statscan survey aims to pinpoint where the jobs are
Jun. 22, 2011
The agency will start an official index in the autumn that will track vacancies by province and industry and, eventually, how that changes over time… Statscan has also just completed a pilot project that gathered detailed data on job openings and, starting in the fall of 2012, plans to release an annual study that explores job vacancies by occupation, labour shortages and hard-to-fill positions.
Tags: economy, participation, standard of living, youth
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The high-tech rebirth of Canada’s textile industry
Jun. 18, 2011
The industry… has been clobbered by unfettered foreign competition, a high Canadian dollar and eroding free-trade benefits for much of the past decade. Between 2005 and 2009, for instance, textile shipments plummeted 43.5 per cent, while manufacturing as a whole only sank 18.1 per cent, according to Statistics Canada. The firms that have survived this dramatic contraction are generally smaller and more nimble than in the industry of old.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
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Enforce our labour laws
May 16 2011
… the extent to which vulnerable workers in Ontario are being ripped off by some employers, as outlined in a new study, is startling. One in three low-wage workers has had wages unfairly withheld or outright stolen by employers, according to the Workers’ Action Centre report. For some, it’s paycheques that are short hours, for others it’s being denied vacation pay or forced to work copious overtime hours for no pay at all. This amounts to “wage theft” and an indictment of the government’s ability to enforce its labour laws and regulations on behalf of those who need the protections the most.
Tags: crime prevention, globalization, immigration, standard of living
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More can be done to combat ‘wage theft,’ labour minister admits
May 12 2011
… a new report that found one-third of low-income workers had their wages withheld or stolen by employers… a Workers’ Action Centre report… concluded that “the lack of protection in Ontario workplaces leaves many of the workers … with little hope of getting the wages they’re owed, resulting in significant economic hardship.”… DiNovo urged the government to follow recommendations such as targeting “industries like cleaning, hospitality, retail and construction, where newcomers to our province have a long, long history of substandard employment practices.”
Tags: crime prevention, economy, immigration, rights
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