The prospect of finding a good job in the GTA has improved overall since 2011 — but race, gender and a university education still determine your likelihood of landing one, a new report shows.
While unemployment fell and more workers in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area were able to find stable jobs between 2011 and 2017, those without a university education saw no improvement in job security, according to a study of precarious work by United Way and McMaster University.
For racialized women, even those with a higher education failed to see an increase in secure employment — and those without a post-secondary degree continued to be the lowest paid in the region.
That, the study says, suggests the “adage that a rising tide will lift all boats proved to be false in Ontario.”
“The growth in jobs and the growth in secure employment, it was only a few groups in our society that really benefitted from that,” said McMaster labour and economics professor Wayne Lewchuk, one of the study’s lead researchers.
The GTA and Hamilton accounted for almost all of the employment growth in Ontario from 2011 to 2017, and its unemployment rate fell from 8 per cent to 6 per cent. But average weekly wages for all workers in the region only rose by 1 per cent when taking into account cost of living increases.
The latest study, being released Tuesday, builds on previous research conducted by the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario project that delved into precarious work and its impact on workers’ income and overall well being. In 2017, around 37 per cent of workers were precariously employed in the region, suggesting that “precarious employment has imprinted itself on the GTHA labour market,” according to the report.
Precarious work has also left a social imprint, the study found. Despite a growing economy, a third of all workers still reported poorer mental health in 2017, a slight increase from 2011. Some 40 per cent of workers reported feeling anxiety related to employment.
“For those who are precariously employed, they can’t get ahead or plan for their future,” said Daniele Zanotti, president and chief executive officer at United Way. “For the bulk of workers, what we’re seeing from this research is their well-being hasn’t improved with the economy.”
The study, entitled Getting Left Behind, is based on 2,000 individual phone surveys. It measured employment security in two ways: by looking at how many jobs are full-time permanent positions and by using a “precarity index” to measure job quality. The index includes factors like whether workers have access to benefits, are paid in cash, get paid if they miss a day’s work, and feel they are able to raise health and safety concerns without reprisal.
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