Declining job quality

As Purple Library Guy's comment on my last post on the real job picture pointed out, not only are we bleeding jobs but we are exchanging quality jobs for ones of lesser value.

So to back up his contention here are some facts from the CIBC job quality index from June 2013. What the following graphs will show is the effect the neoliberal policies inflicted on us by successive governments have had on the job market in  the past 30 years or so.

In this first chart we see that except for a short lived blip job quality has been on a steady downward trajectory, dropping precipitately from the Eighties.

As we've all been aware our economy has become increasingly dependent on the resource sector resulting in a regional imbalance in job quality.

 

All provinces with the exception of resource-rich Alberta

and Saskatchewan have seen their level of employment

quality falling, with Atlantic Canada and Ontario seeing

the largest declines (Chart 2)




 Finally two more charts that speak for themselves.

Not only do we see part time employment outstripping full time we also see that counter to what we were told when off shoring became all the rage that it isn't the low paying jobs that " Canadians didn't want to do" that have been shipped out. It is in fact the higher paying, high quality jobs that have disappeared.

Sadly we are being fed the same "jobs Canadians don't want" lie when it comes to the Temporary Foreign Workers program.

Not only do we need to question whether they are telling the truth  the next time they trumpet job growth but we also need to consider the quality of the jobs they say are being created.