The article I have chosen talks about the changes in the number of jobs in the workforce and references as well as relates to the recent drop, in unemployment rate throughout Canada around September. It is stated that Canada’s unemployment rate was at a four decade low at 5.5%. However losses in jobs within manufacturing and construction sectors may have caused a slight re-evaluation of this insight.

As mentioned in the article, “The number of full-time jobs fell by 16,100, offset in part by a gain of 14,300 part-time jobs,”. While it was previously predicted by economists that there would be instead a gain in jobs, it seems as though there was an unexpected 16,100 drop in the number of full time jobs, instead giving rise to 14,300 part time jobs. Although in numbers it may seem a lot, but in the long run it is only a minor set back, as wage growth has continued to be consistent, hopefully closing the wage gap between full time and part time employees. As Scotiabank deputy chief economist Brett House puts it, “we continued to see strong wage gains, at over twice headline inflation, which reflects the fact that Canadian businesses continue to cite labour shortages as the most important constraint on their growth.” Meaning that once number of jobs begin rising again, the economy will continue to grow and would not impact the unemployment in the long run. As mentioned above, with wage growth increasing at a steady rate and inflation staying on target, the wage gap can only continue to shrink, which will keep the economy and labour market at a healthy status, keeping unemployment rate low.

Site: https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canadian-economy-lost-1-800-jobs-in-october-unemployment-rate-steady-1.4676019

This article I have chosen discusses the effects of a rise in temporary workers within the Canadian workforce. In the past 20 years, the number of non-permanent employees numbers have increased by 50% which is faster than the rate at which permanent workers are growing at 33%. This blog post will be speaking of the facts and opinions presented in the article and further discuss the issues in the present situation.

Temporary jobs are defined as contracted positions which have a predetermined end date for the employee, or casual and seasonal jobs, in which employees are not working full time. As such, the 2.1 million people working temporary jobs in the present has made an impact on the Canadian economy as a whole. These results come from one of the most significant social drivers of change in the work force, “the dramatic increase in women’s participation in the labour force (…) and proportion of women who engaged in the paid labour market” (Module 1.3). This social driver has allowed the economy to continuously expand through the years and as the article states, “Overall, women were more likely than men to have a casual, term or contract job in Canada at 85 per cent, compared to 73 per cent for men.” The job opportunities that were created since then has grown and contributed to the rise and improvement of the workforce.

However, as Krishen Rangasamy, a senior economist at National Bank, says, the temporary jobs are rising faster than total employment in Canada. Although this has caused the wage gap between temporary and permanent workers to decrease, there are still issues with this. One such problem is that for people without a permanent job, there may be an increase in job insecurity and growing incidents of contingent work (Module 1.2). Although they may be working similar jobs, continuously switching companies and organizations only slows down the efficiency of economic growth. As the article puts it, “because temp workers are still paid less on average and are a rising share of total employment in Canada, it means average hourly wages in the country are growing at a slower pace.” 

As a result, although the rise in temporary workers have provided some benefits to the economy, in general, it would be ideal for the number of temporary workers in the economy to decrease, to allow for growth in permanent job workers as they are in the end being paid more than temporary jobs. These all depend on other social drivers as well though. As Josh Nye, a senior economist at RBC is quoted at the end of the article, “”If younger people are working temporary jobs that allow them to pursue further education, their lifetime incomes might be higher,” Nye said. “And, if older people are choosing to stay in the labour force for longer by working a temporary job rather than retiring, that would be positive for their incomes.”

Article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/temporary-workers-employment-1.5135310