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Average household expenditures in Ontario in 2012 was $78,495 whereas the total median income of Ontario census families in 2012 was $74,890. This can be seen in this second link: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/famil108a-eng.htm This relates to chapter 9 of Stanford's book as he states "most households spend essentially all their income on consumption, and hence their savings are non-existent" (114). This can be seen with the two figures above. If you take the two numbers, households are actually spending more than they are making.

Youth Employment Fund-This is the official Government of Ontario web portal for Employment Ontario. Whether you're laid-off, unemployed or looking for a new job, we can help. If you're an employer, we can help you get the people you need.

Ontario has a strong economy and many opportunities to offer newcomers. But finding a job takes hard work. It can also take time. It's a good idea to prepare for your job search before you leave for Ontario.

I saw that the Labour Market Information Service had already been previously commented on. So I decided to share this link on immigration in Ontario instead. It talks about finding work for new immigrants. This could be temporary or full time work.

Ontario Job Futures is a publication which provides information on the current trends and future outlook for about 200 occupations common to Ontario. It is developed by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, and uses projections developed in collaboration with Employment and Social Development Canada. It is a good source for looking at local employment trends for the short and medium-term future in people's careers.

This week I started on JobBank.gc.ca and searched my local market, York Region (as listed under "Basic LMI Resources - Where to Start" in our course notes). As I typically work with students, this particular site www.betakit.com and an article about funding for youth entrepreneurs was a great source of info to share with my students! Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation, was at Communitech this morning in Waterloo and announced a partnership with the Campus-Linked Accelerators (CLA) and On-Campus Entrepreneurship Activities (OCEA) to help students interested in building their own business gaining skills to succeed. The CLA is investing $5.8 million and the OCEA providing over $650,000.

This website provides quarterly updates on Ontario's Labour Market Information. It covers topics including: job gain/loss percentages, unemployment rates. It also breaks job information down by Industry covering employments rates, good produced, and various related services. This resource is beneficial as it covers regional trends within Ontario and provides you with graphs and charts so that the data is presented in an easier to understand manner. It also provides the sources of the data and the links to the source documents if available allowing for more in-depth research to be done on a particular number presented.

An interesting current community and university partnership research project on precarious work and its impact on poverty in Ontario.

The site lists the minimum wage across Canada. Interesting that working full-time for minimum wage puts a single person below the poverty line.

Workforce Planning Ontario is made up of a network of 26 Workforce Planning Boards covering four regions across the province. They gather intelligence about the supply of labour and the demand side of the local labour market by working with employers to identify and meet their current and emerging skills needs. The primary role of Workforce Planning Boards is to help improve understanding of and coordinate community responses to labour market issues and needs. If you click on an area of interest, such as the city you live in, there are publications on LMI, including spotlights on specific industries in that area.

One of the things we will need to be helping our clients to consider as Career Counsellors is whether attending University and paying tuition will yield a good Return on Investment given the projected earnings of potential careers. This article emphasizes the harsh reality that tuition fees are often too heavy for both low and middle income families and therefore may not always be the best investment, given the time it takes to pay back loans. But, one point that is very interesting: "For an annual average of $170 a family, undergraduate university tuition fees could be eliminated altogether."

This article reflects the general trend of Westernized countries who at first implement programs and budgets to help protect and conserve their natural resources and species, but after realizing the costs of maintaining such a program, they cut funding and eventually abandon the initial idea altogether. This typically occurs when a government is attempting to privatize areas of the public sector, and has happened to several services and industries within Ontario. This article also highlights the effects of cancelling protective programs for the natural landscape and its resources, as many people who rely on certain natural resource industries are at risk of losing their jobs, as well as those involved with the protection and enforcement of such programs. This specific case deals with the endangered species of Caribou living on a conservation area in Northern Ontario, and their fate lies at the hands of the final outcome of this decision to cancel or continue the level of protection currently over that area. The primary threat is the natural resource industry and their extraction practices, which is potentially fatal for the Caribou species, as the government is more easily persuaded with the promise of financial return over protecting an area that is a natural resource goldmine and its few animal species that inhabit it. There are job cuts and office closures in Ontario's natural resource future, however the extent to which it effects depends on how environmentally aware the government decides to be.

This website is from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities and provides labour market information and trends in Ontario.

Great resource for returning students to start their own business over the summer.

Interesting article from the star.com discussing the raise in minimum wage in Ontario.

In the first few chapters of Stanford's book - Economics is for Everyone - he speaks to how Economic Impact is measured in both the private and non-profit sectors in different ways. Having worked for non-profit organizations for a number of years, I was especially curious about how the economic impact of the non-profit sector is measured and found this great resource put together by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Especially enlightening is the PowerPoint presentation of International best practices for Tracking Economic Impact. Enjoy!

A very interesting article to read and reflect on prior to working as an employment counsellor, as many clients have worked, currently work, or will work in precarious employment relationships. The article defines precarious employment, gives a brief history, and provides great insight into why precarious employment is on the rise. It includes a study of about 400 workers in precarious employment in Ontario, and outlines the negative health benefits. Some of these include uncertainties in the following areas: uncertainty of future work, of level of income/ benefits, location of work, schedule, workload uncertainty, etc., which ultimately lead to negative effects in people's mental and physical health.

We can help you with your Second Career funding application! Second Career is an Ontario government program that enables laid- off Ontarians to train for a new job in high-demand careers.

In Gratton's chapters 5 through 7 this week I especially enjoyed the thoughts she expressed about innovation and how technology will facilitate creativity and innovation in and between workplaces. It reminded me of a Creativity/ Innovation conference that I attended for 2 years in 2011 & 2012 in Ontario. A group of over 100 creativity and innovation professionals from corporations like Disney, organizations like Facilitators without borders and entrepreneurs like those from FlipSkills & ThinkX come together for 4 days to share the latest and the greatest with each other. It's worth a look and I'd encourage you to register.

In 2008 the Municipal Finance Officers' Association published a 27 page document that I find quite fascinating. It addresses the challenge that municipalities have in finding a balance between embracing local strengths, working within the framework of government and competing on a global scale. It breaks Ontario into different regions, talks about each regions' strengths, identifies stakeholders and suggests ways that all parties can work together to strengthen Ontario's competitiveness on a number of scales.