TORONTO, September 23, 2003 -- As opposition parties in the Ontario election call for a rise in the minimum wage, new research on the Canadian labour market shows continued growth in insecure or so-called "precarious" employment that is expected to reshape analysis of employment trends in Canada.
The York University-based research contradicts earlier conclusions that growth has stabilized in "non-standard employment" or work that is not full-time and permanent. The research challenges conventional statistical models used in Canada to assess labour market conditions and laws governing workplace organization and health.
"The Canadian labour market is becoming more precarious and unstable," said York University Prof. Leah Vosko, lead researcher in the study. "This is due to the growth of temporary and part-time wage work, self-employment and other forms of work not fully protected by labour laws and policies."
Prof. Vosko’s research findings and related studies by community researchers are featured in the current issue of Just Labour, the online journal of the Centre for Research on Work and Society at York University (www.justlabour.yorku.ca). Vosko’s analysis will be published by Statistics Canada in the next issue of Perspectives on Labour. Vosko and colleagues Cynthia Cranford at the University of Toronto and Nancy Zukewich at Statistics Canada, measure the level of precariousness in each form of work included in the model of non-standard work used by Statistics Canada and reveal a substantially different picture of the Canadian labour market.
The precariousness of non-standard employment is measured based on the following factors: limited social benefits, poor legal protection, job insecurity, temporary or short-term work and low wages.
The research shows:
Full-time permanent employment becoming less common, dropping from 67 percent in 1989 to 63 percent in 2002.
A slow but continuing rise in temporary work, reaching 11 percent of total employment by 2002, up from 7 percent 1989.
The number of self-employed who work alone has grown dramatically for both men and women: from 6 percent to 8 percent of total female employment between 1989 and 2002; from 8 percent to 11 percent of total male employment in the same period.
Workers in precarious employment report poorer overall health and higher levels of stress than workers in standard employment relationships.
Self-employed workers, including home care workers, mail carriers, newspaper carriers, freelance editors, and door-to-door salespeople are currently defined as entrepreneurs, even though many do not have entrepreneurial capital and control over the terms of their employment, and fight an uphill battle to gain basic forms of labour protection.
With the increasing trend in precarious employment, new forms of worker organizations are emerging as workers seek protection in areas where the traditional union model does not apply.
The research was conducted by the Community University Research Alliance on Contingent Employment (ACE), and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). You can access the research in Just Labour at www.justlabour.yorku.ca. Prof. Leah Vosko holds the Canada Research Chair in Feminist Political Economy at York University.
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For further information, please contact:
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Prof. Leah Vosko |
Susan Bigelow |
YU/097/03
