Part III – A Deeper Look at GLI: Jobs for Everyone?

This web feature is Part III in a series looking at the assumptions we have about guaranteed livable income. The first feature deconstructed the question of whether people would work if they had income security. Part II examined the issue of whether people have a right to income security, regardless of activity.

After the election last fall, the title of the Human Resources and Social Development minister was changed to Human Resources and Skills Development. When asked about this change, the Director of Communications for the Prime Minister’s Office said, “I think the best thing that one can do to help improve the life of someone who is unemployed is to help them get another job.”

Kory Teneycke was likely very well-intentioned when he said this, but his remark implies that jobs are there for the taking, if only we can help the unemployed to get them. However, the reality is that there are not enough jobs for everyone.

As the first web feature in this series noted, those who fear that guaranteed livable income (GLI) will make people withdraw from the workforce often assume that people are motivated to work solely for financial reasons. One reason for this belief is the assumption that jobs are readily available and that individuals are choosing welfare or employment insurance (EI) over work. They therefore expect to make people “choose” work by making welfare and EI unappealing with low rates and burdensome conditions.

This approach doesn’t work, however. Looking for work is an official requirement of receiving EI or social assistance, unless an exception is given for caregiving work or disability. Recipients are usually required to take any available job, even if it doesn’t meet their needs or match their skill set. It is impossible to choose welfare over work; rather, there are not enough jobs for every Canadian who needs or wants a job.

The official unemployment rate in Canada has not been below an annual average of 6% over the past thirty years. Even during the recent years of the economic boom, unemployment stayed in the 6-7% range. Now that Canada is heading into a recession, unemployment is on the rise and the problem is going to get worse, not better.

The official unemployment rate only includes those who are not working at all, but are actively seeking work. It does not include those who have stopped looking for work due to frustration with the job market, those who are underemployed, or those who are working part-time involuntarily. There are some estimates that the real, unofficial unemployment rate is one and a half times that of the official rate (i.e., currently around 10.5%).

The official employment numbers also fail to take into account that not every job is a good job. Currently, 1 in 3 jobs in Canada are non-standard or precarious work: contract, temporary, part-time or self-employed, with no benefits, no pension, and generally low wages.

Trends over the past year have given greater cause for alarm, as job loss has tended to be in full-time employment and in the manufacturing sector (which pays relatively well), while job creation has tended to be in part-time and/or self-employment and in the low-wage service industry. In September 2008, 90% of the 107,000 new jobs created were part-time, while 1 in 4 jobs was self-employment. These numbers are particularly worrisome because while many unemployed Canadians will find new work to replace lost jobs, it will not be of the same quality or at the same wage level.

Certain demographic groups run a greater than average risk of unemployment: low paid workers, less educated workers, young people, Aboriginal people and recent immigrants. Jobs are also not distributed evenly across the country, putting workers in certain regions at a geographical disadvantage. While some workers have greater mobility, not everyone can uproot their family or leave their community and personal support system. Access to jobs is therefore not equal for every Canadian.

It is simply not reasonable to assume that every Canadian who wants a job could have a job, let alone a good job that meets their needs and matches their skills and interests. We should therefore be wary of any attempts to allow access to income security be solely determined by participation in the paid labour force. GLI would be one way of ensuring that every Canadian has income security, even when there is no job available to them.