Centrelink queues shocked Australians but long before COVID-19 Western Sydney had job-poor neighbourhoods with very high unemployment rates.
Loren Elliott/AAP
Western Sydney’s growth-driven boom had ended before COVID-19 hit. Some neighbourhood unemployment rates were 2-3 times the metropolitan average, with female workforce participation as low as 43%.
A sand mine in Nepal. Growing urbanization and its need for concrete is fuelling a global sand crisis.
(Michael Hoffmann)
As sand markets boom, entrepreneurs, organized crime and others are cashing in — leaving widespread environmental damage in their wake.
Canadian universities need to reform the culture of the humanities so that careers outside the university are seen as just as valuable as tenure-track jobs.
(Annie Spratt/Unsplash)
With the support of universities, PhD graduates working beyond the academy could bring their knowhow into PhD seminars or classrooms to help current students expand their career horizons.
Uber’s loss of its licence to operate in London signals uberisation is not an unstoppable force. Job insecurity, though, is on the march.
Will Oliver/EPA
We need to see uberisation in the context of all forms of precarious and insecure work becoming more acceptable.
Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce arrives at a press conference to announce a tentative deal reached with CUPE in Toronto on Oct. 6, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Cole Burston
Academics on casual contracts often feel vulnerable and of lower status than “permanent” staff members. They can minimise their exploitation as if it’s part of the authentic academic experience.
Explicitly teaching graduate students project management - a skill set they typically learn through trial and error - could mean better research and employability.
(Shutterstock)
Graduate students have much to offer the non-academic workforce based on critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Universities need to help them articulate these skills for employers.
Uber’s expansion has become a global epic with regional episodes, but the legal conflict in Argentina has even higher stakes.
Beneath the typical full-time, permanent model of classroom teaching lies an enormous workforce of educators who function on the margins as precarious workers.
(Shutterstock)
Front-line workers employed both inside and outside of the classroom are an integral part of schooling, yet we deny their work conditions are relevant to quality education.
Doug Ford on the campaign trail in May 2018, promising to “open” Ontario for business. His Bill 47 does nothing of the sort.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tara Walton
Less secure jobs are just one aspect of the rise of finance capital. It’s a driver of increasingly uneven income distributions and corporate priorities that are now putting our future at risk.
Underemployment and stagnant wages may be strong signs of worker insecurity in the face of relentless cost-cutting.
Paul Braven/AAP
Most workers are still employees, not casuals or gig workers. So what has changed to increase the insecurity of workers?
Unpaid interns protests in Geneva in 2016. Activism has played a big part in how unpaid internships are now being regarded with disdain.
(Global Intern Coalition)
Global activism has played a big role in outlawing unpaid internships. Here’s how protests and social media shaming spurred negative media coverage of unpaid internships.
Far more than eating green vegetables and going to the gym more often, living and working conditions have a big impact on health. Saskatchewan’s new NDP leader is determined to see it reflected in public policy.
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It’s not all about eating leafy green vegetables and working out: Living and working conditions have a profound impact on our health. So why are politicians avoiding taking action?
Agriculture, forestry and fishing, and arts and recreation services are much more precarious for their employees.
KATE AUSBURN/AAP
Despite relatively stable and low levels of unemployment, workers are increasingly concerned that their jobs are at risk.
Governments face disruption by the private sector and social unrest unless they embrace new technology. Here, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau meets a robot in Edmonton last May as others look on.
( THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)
Deputy Director, Intellectual Forum at Jesus College in the University of Cambridge, and Researcher for the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University, University of Cambridge