Hi everyone,
Hope you’re doing well. This week, I wanted to write about how the COVID-19 pandemic and mandatory quarantine has affected the labour market and the ability to work. Yes, unemployment has increased, but which segments of population have been most affected? As you know, I really like facts and statistics, so let’s analyze some numbers together. Statistics Canada is the federal government department responsible for collecting data on the economy, society, and culture, and published a Labour Force Survey earlier this month with recent data reporting up to August (six months after COVID-19 measures). I want to analyze these unemployment rate statistics through the lens of gender, age, and race too.
Six months after the quarantine and mandatory lock-downs, public health restrictions have relaxed, and businesses have re-opened. For larger corporations, this means that workers who were temporarily laid off would be returning to the workforce. August has seen remarkable growth in employment, but only in full-time work, at 93.9% of pre-pandemic levels. However, growth in part-time work has remained stagnated. This makes me wonder- who are the people with full-time employment, and who are the people limited to part-time positions? I predict that the number of self-employed workers have increased because businesses are allowed to reopen. I also predict that disadvantaged groups in society will have more issues finding or keeping employment, including women, visible minorities, and youth (ages 15-24).
Gender
The unemployment rate for core-aged women age 25 to 54 faced the steepest decline of unemployment out all of major groups, from 1.2 percent to 7.5 percent. For men, the rate has largely been unchanged pre-COVID six month ago to the data shown in August. As you may know, women in the workforce shoulder the brunt of domestic responsibilities (famously called “the second shift” by sociologist Arlie Hochschild). Now, the data shows that the pandemic has exacerbated working women’s obligations, as they juggle additional responsibilities caring for children and family members at a higher rate now. It makes me wonder- where are the men? If both husband and wife are still working during the pandemic, why are women still doing the majority of the care-taker duties if they have equal responsibility in the household? Unless the woman’s hours have been reduced to part-time, I think that men should take more responsibilities in the household
Race
This part was interesting for me. With the Black Lives Matter movement, I wanted to analyze how that would be reflected in nation-wide employment statistics during the pandemic. The national unemployment rate in August was 11.1 percent across all races, and focusing on specific visible minorities included: 17.6 percent for Black Canadians, 17.9 percent for Arab Canadians, and 16.6 percent for 16.6 percent for Southeast Asians. This is significantly higher than the unemployment rate for White Canadians at 9.4 percent. This means that race does play a role in the unemployment statistics. If White Canadians make up a majority of the population (and ethnic minorities make up a minority of the population), wouldn’t it make sense for them to make up the majority of those unemployed as well? This means that ethnic minorities may be working in sectors with low security and low pay; this pandemic simply exposed these vulnerabilities, and gives a face to the unemployment rate in Canada.
Age
Youth is defined as ages 15 to 24 years , and was quite high in August at 23.1 percent, at double the unemployment rate in the February statistics. This is the good news, because it’s down now from 29.4 percent in May. This recession is quite troubling, with the peak at 29.4 percent compared to ten years ago during the 2008/2009 recession, when the youth employment rate peaked at 16.4 percent.
Statistics is not exactly stimulating, but I hope this analysis makes you more interested, as it gives a face to the numbers. If I were a policy-maker, I would focus on how I could create policies that would alleviate the burden from working mothers, and encourage employment for youth and ethnic minorities. I would also think of long-term solutions for the economy too, potentially restructuring it- perhaps some sectors are not worth saving, or are not the biggest priorities.
Talk to you soon,
Guest
