Why Do Such Divisions Exist Within The Labour Market? Essay

One of the most pressing issues faced by Canada today is unemployment. In fact, reports confirm that the jobless rate continues to increase every year. As of February this year, the unemployment rate was at 7.0%. The presence of unemployment rate is evident in various provinces. In Quebec, the number of people working declined by 26,000 in February. Alternately, the number of employed in British Columbia fell by 10,000; while Saskatchewan nearly 6,000 individuals are unable to find jobs. The Conference Board of Canada projected that the country’s labour woes could reach to more than one million workers by 2020. In addition to this, experts predict that the unemployment rate in this country will surpass that of the United States. Along with the dismal figures and projections, the problem of unemployment consequently creates numerous negative consequences on the nation’s economy, its government, and of course its people. Some of the known effects of unemployment include reduced spending power, an increase in financial cost, recession, and even crimes and violence. Individually, long-term unemployment may result to depression, loss of self-respect, and strained relationships with family and friends – ultimately causing damage to the person’s overall well-being. The adverse effects of unemployment only show that this issue imposes a significant cost both on a national and individual level. As such, it is of primary importance to create an immediate plan of action to alleviate

Today, women in Canada earn about 72% of men’s wages for similar work: full-time, full year. Many doubters of the wage gap argue that women earn less than men mainly because they work fewer hours, as a group, then men do. However, the

Education along with work experience are vital resources that immigrants convey to Canada’s industry. However, this is not the scenario for many new immigrants, who struggles to get past the preliminary credentials check-up process. In 2007, a report showed that “foreign credentials of 340,000 Canadians or permanent residents of visible minorities have not been recognized” (Andrew Cardozo and Ravi Pendakur, 2007). In addition, a number of unemployed immigrants within that year accounted for the loss of $4.1B in Canada industry. In context, it shows that immigrants have a higher education than Canadian-born, “Statistics show that 47.5% of immigrants, aged 25 to 34, have completed university, compared to 26.6% of Canadian-born, workers” (Canadian government). This shows the proximity of ignorance and prejudice towards hiring an immigrant in Canada. To connect, these contempt results can give rise to many levels of distress, anxiety and psychological problems that can deteriorate and provoke health problems. A study done by Kate Strully at Harvard University concluded that “people had an increase of 81% chance to develop a mental illness after being unemployed” (KW STRULLY -

The issue of economic inequality has ruined the economy of the United States completely. This issue is making its way to Canada, which is causing more of its citizens to go into poverty. When this problem first started to arise, it was strongly ignored by the government because they believed it would not cause a problem. However, over the past twenty years, it has increased rapidly which caused the gap between rich and poor to became enormous. Moreover, the wealth of the rich strongly depends on the disadvantage of the poor. The only way the rich will stay rich is if the poor stay poor. The top one percent of Canadians receive 318,000 dollars on average whereas the bottom ninety percent receive only 28,000 dollars. If the poor start getting high

Canadian workplaces today seem to be a fairly diverse place, with a blend of many religions, ethnicities, and genders present. However, although people preach affirmative action and melting pots in current times, many inequality and power issues still abound. One strikingly noticeable example is gender discrimination. Women in the workforce face many challenges like smaller wages, harassment, male privilege in hiring or promotions, and lack of support when pregnant or raising children. One half of the planet is women, and it can be assumed the same for Canada, but they still face judgment at work because they lack the authority to dispute against big corporations or even their male supervisor. It cannot be argued that

And this solution led to liberal immigration laws that admit 200,000 new immigrants to Canada each year. About 70 percent of recent immigrants to urban Canada are visible minorities; people of color make up nearly 50 percent of populations in Vancouver and Toronto and are the fastest growing communities in Canada’s eight largest cities (J. Y. Yee and G. C. Dumbrill, “Whiteout: looking for race in Canadian social work practice,” inMulticultural Social Work in Canada: Working With Diverse Ethno-Racial Communities, A. Al-Krenaw and J. R. Graham, Eds., pp. 98–121, Oxford University Press, Don Mills, Canada, 2003.) For instance, RBC Financial Group has ensured that 22% of their workforce is comprised of visible minorities (V. Dugale, “The changing color of Canada,” Our Times, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 24–28, 2006.) Similarly, FedEx has a high proportion of visible minorities (almost 7%) in senior management positions. Its staff represents about 19 nationalities at its Mississauga, Ontario headquarters (R. Robin, “Delivering diversity,” Canadian Business, vol. 77, no. 7, p. 38, 2004.)

Furthermore the high income inequality is not the only issue Canadian families are facing, with enormous cutbacks from the government, Canadians are facing a lot more precarious times. The government has been reducing the economic security and access to public and social services has also been undermined many of the statutory benefits people use to enjoy in the past. Part of this problem with has to do with the employers and media idea of “flexibility”. Employers and the media often claim that the "flexibility" provided by precarious employment offers workers improved work-family balance and other lifestyle benefits. The reality, however, is that 1/3 of adult women who work part-time said they would prefer to work full-time, and this proportion

Immigrants today now have the privilege of entering and residing in Canada but along with this privilege, there are also barriers that impede their integration and deprive them of equal opportunity in the society. The undervaluing of foreign education and credentials has emerged over the years as a huge obstacle faced by recent immigrants who seek employment in the areas that they have been trained, and worked in for decades in their respective home countries. For years, newcomers in Canada have been denied inclusion into the Canadian labour market simply because of policies that were

Inequality in Canada is not as prominent as many other places around the world, although it does remain in certain segments of Canada. There are many forms of inequality in Canada and internationally, although this papers main focus is going to be the inequality of wealth. According to Steven Kerstetter “Canadians may view their country as a land of opportunity, but it is also a land of deep and abiding inequality in the distribution of personal wealth” (Kerstetter 2002). The “gaps between the rich and poor remain evident in Canadian statistics” (Kerstetter 2002), Canadians have always kept financial security as an essential element of life and have tried to obtain and sustain it within their lives. Frank Cunningham’s article, “What’s

Employee skills and the ability of employers to attract and retain skilled workers will be a primary concern to Canada’s economy in the immediate future. A train overflowing with crisis is approaching, and we need to stop listening for it to come because it’s already bearing down on us. Labour and skill shortages in Canada can be attributed to: aging population, increased life expectancy, migration of highly skilled labour, and the disparity between the skills possessed by youth and the skills demanded by employers.

This article provides detailed information that give statistics based on distinguishing immigrant classes: “Tables 2 (for males) and 3 (for females) present descriptive statistics by broad immigrant class across the three cycles of the survey. … For both genders, it is clear that skilled worker principal applicants have higher educational attainment, and it is also apparent that males have higher averages than females”. This article is distinct from the other two articles by the fact that many more statistics are offered. These extra statistics offer more insight into the descriptions of the economical immigrant policies. Moreover, the article offers an insight into a range of policy proposals in determining how immigrants can immigrate into Canada. The articles introduction mentions important policies that the Canadian government put into place: Recent examples include the Ontario Expert Roundtable on Immigration (2012) and the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada. The paper presents a basic description of differences in labour market outcomes, including both earnings and employments. This is an important statement as it informs the reader about the various types of concepts, along with their sources, that have

Racial discrimination in the workplace has been a persistent theme in Canada’s history as well as present-day times. The occurrence of actions and attitudes that impose a sense of one being less equal than another on the basis of one’s race in Canada’s workplace inhibits both our nation’s ability to move forward as well as strengthen unification within our country. The belief in a more egalitarian society, where one’s race and ethnic background have little to no impact on employees (or potential employees) standings within the job market, would seemingly be reinforced by the majority of Canadians, who consistently show support for Canada’s multicultural identity. Couple that with the noticeable strides Canada has made in the past several

Gender inequality has been a long part of Canada’s history with men being the dominant decision makers. Women have had to fight long hard battles and overcome numerous obstacles to prove themselves and demonstrate that they are equal to men and not inferior. Over the course of a century women have achieved suffrage and have become increasingly visible in the political and economic sectors. Despite all the achievements women have made barriers remain in effect leaving women at a social, economic and political disadvantage even in the twenty-first century. The primary obstacles in achieving gender equality are the noticeable absence of women in authoritative economic and political positions, unfair social stereotypes that are still

Gender inequality exists in Canadian society and forms part of its social organization. This inequality begins from conception where the behavior and personalities of children are shaped according to their gender. Gender inequality has a huge impact on the Canadian wealth distribution as men and women have different opportunities and face varying barriers to earning incomes and assets. The behavior and personalities that men are taught to have from their birth make them have more abilities and power than women in acquiring wealth. There have been efforts in addressing the gender inequality factor in the Canadian wealth distribution but the inequality persists (Fortin et al., 2012). Gender inequality negatively affects wealth distribution between Canadian men and women, and the best approach to address the gender inequality issue in the Canadian society is to have a different definition of gender inequality. For example, defining gender inequality as a product of various complex social forces.

Taking a deeper look at the future of work has never been so critical in today’s society. Not only does one have to assess the working conditions within their own country but rather countries around the world because ultimately, we are one intertwined and whatever happens to one country will affect us in some way. Trying to discover what the future of work has in store for us is integral because as history indicates, being ignorant of the economy and its people can lead to disastrous events. The first of these events being the Great Depression of the 1930s and the most recent one being the stock market crash of 2008. These events occurred because nobody paid attention to the people running the economy and this led to sharp increases in shares and mortgages (in the years leading to 2008). This affected some businessmen but more importantly, the working class people. Currently, we are doing a relatively better job at monitoring the economy and market. We have even increased overall wealth in our nation wide, however a majority of that wealth has gone to the individuals who already have money but at the expense of the lower classes. Therein lies the problem when looking at the future of work, especially in a capitalist society like Canada. How do we solve this increasing gap between the rich and poor? This question has been the topic of debate for the past couple of years. Every now and then, society tries to take a look at this issue in the form of films Though they do not