Now that Canadian youth can work part-time without becoming ineligible for government assistance, many will be incentivized to work in jobs in increased demand during the COVID-19 shutdown.
It’s critical to determine how Canadians who have been considered vulnerable members of the workforce are meaningfully included within the future of work.
The Canadian workforce is aging. At the same time, we’re facing a skills shortage. Keeping older workers on the job past 65 is an obvious solution but the federal parties are silent on the topic.
Our inability to foresee the jobs of the future should be tempered by the realization that that jobs have always appeared in the past, regardless of technological advances.
With most new jobs going to women, their workforce participation rate is growing at nine times the rate for men. But, while participation is on track for parity in a decade, pay is another matter.
Even if policies could be found to bind new immigrants to regional areas, workers’ movements would continue to weaken the long-run impact on regional populations and economies.
Provincial governments in Atlantic Canada have been trying to encourage immigrants to become entrepreneurs for more than a decade. Some are boldly answering the call.