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While the unemployment rate may 'only' be at 7%, a more informed look at the statistics would reveal real Canadian struggle. 7% may seem low, but this stat does not include 'discouraged workers' in Canada (those who have given up on finding work and are no longer looking). And while the employment rate may appear to be at an all-time high, look closer and you find that most of those workers do NOT have full-time work, and the stats have climbed only because of the increase of women in paid roles in the last decades.

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.

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

In this week's course notes the idea of the precarious worker caught my attention. Many health issues as well as discriminatory issues are seen while doing precarious work as it is not long term and there is constant change. This article outlines and defines what the precarious worker is and the gender differences in the precarious work environment. To give one example, the article states that women represent more precarious workers than men being 33%:12%. This automatically gives way to questions regarding sex discrimination in full time work and brings in the idea of women trying to have a work/life balance for their family.

Alternative Link: http://www.erudit.org/revue/ri/2010/v65/n1/039528ar.pdf

This brief piece offers an informative portrait of what is going on in the Canadian job market. In entirety, job market in the current month, compared to November 2014, is encouraging. "A healthy rotation toward more full-time jobs will be encouraging to the Bank of Canada which has flagged underemployment as a signpost of slack in labour markets."

I came across a newspaper article this week about the living wage needed in my city, which was $14.95 per hour. This got me thinking about how the minimum wage is so much lower and as a result many people are considered 'working poor' as they are working full time, yet not able to make ends meet because they are being paid less than the living wage. I came across this website in researching more on this issue. Living Wage Canada is a site/portal to facilitate learning and information sharing among these communities to help build a national living wage movement. It includes details about the Canadian Living Wage Framework which provides a consistent living wage definition, calculation methodology, and strategy for recognizing corporate and community leadership who commit to pass a living wage policy.

This is an article written by the CBC (April 2013) reporting the common practice of outsourcing jobs to foreign workers by Canadian banks. It points the finger particularly at RBC and its close relationship to iGate, a foreign IT company, which receives 11% of its revenue from RBC. Canadian Bank outsourcing is kept very private, therefore it is difficult to identify how many Canadian jobs have actually been lost. In 2012, at least 45 Canadian jobs at RBC were lost, and at CIBC, at least 41. This has resulted in fewer full-time positions and the banks have offered very little support for lay-offs.