Investigating Precarious Employment in rural Ontario Think of your favourite job – maybe the one you have now, or one you had before, or the dream one you will have later. PE is the opposite of this. Valencia Gaspard, PhD Student University of Guelph CRRF Conference 2016

What is it? Unpredictable work schedules High turnover (quicker termination) Impermanent jobs Low employee engagement Low-paying Low worker advocacy (no Union or collective voice) No or little benefits Neoliberal employment trend No training/opportunities

Manufacturing 2002 accounted for 8.9% Canada’s GDP, fell to 4.9% in 2014 2002 20% of total employment in Ontario rural small towns 2004 decline began Every manufacturing job lost in rural Ontario between 2004-2008 4.7 jobs were created elsewhere The problem: those jobs pay 25.3% less than manufacturing (CRRF, 2015; Statistics Canada, 2008) To discuss PE in rural communities means telling the story of manufacturing: In 2002 manufacturing accounted for 8.9% of Canada’s GDP…In 2014 that almost 9% of GDP dropped to 4.9%. Manufacturing jobs in rural Ontario have been synonymous with: stable, well-paying, unionized, reliable work. They could be counted on as steady forms of family supporting employment. In 2002, 20% of total employment in rural small towns. In 2004 the great decline began – So jobs left those areas, and other areas. Of course, there were new jobs available in rural Ontario. During that time the unemployment rate did not skyrocket. Some people who lost those good jobs started working in other placed. Not captured by unemployment rate – UE is low that’s good, UE is high that’s bad ..not a good measure The problem: those jobs pay 25.3% less than manufacturing jobs. Interestingly that difference is only 11.2% in large census metropolitan areas …. So the good jobs are gone, replaced with worse jobs and workers need to deal with that system. Interesting difference between urban and rural, many system checked, such as re-education, are more easily accessed in urban settings. Leaving rural people out.

Indicators Part time work Temporary/contract work Low wages Self-employment (non-incorporated) That can mean a lot of different things – so in the project I’m a part of, we have 4 concrete indicators Individuals with part-time work (< 30 hours) Paid employees with a wage less than 1.5 times the minimum wage in a given year Individuals with contract work

What we know … List is not exhaustive No agreed upon definition Impacts are quantifiable and qualifiable Weak understanding of rural specific impacts Worker left to manage impact

Impacts Health Economic Workplace Employee Development Social HEALTH Lower overall health (Lewchuk et al., 2003) Few health and safety standard met at work (Block ,2010) Employee more likely to be injured, less likely to take time off (Virtanen et al., 2005) Reduced mental health, looming fear of being let-go, no job security ECONOMIC Decreases productivity More toxic work environments Less healthy and more dangerous than traditional unemployment, no safeguards for people precariously employed WORKPLACE Systemic disempowerment No employee workplace control Decay of trust SOCIAL Less agency Negative spillover into home-life, inability to connect with family Reduced social networking ability, which is often how jobs are found

Precarious Employment A significant loss of manufacturing jobs in Ontario has shifted employment trends away from full-time, permanent, unionized work with benefits towards part-time, less permanent, precarious, jobs. This trend has unprecedented impacts on the social, emotional and physical health of rural communities. (Benach and Muntaner 2007; Ferrie 2001; Lewchuk 2015; McLaren 2015; Noack and Vosko 2011; Tiessen 2014)

The Plan Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Contextual Analysis Case Studies Review employment trends 1999-2015 Consider different census divisions and trends Ray! Contextual Analysis What is the precarious work experience in rural communities? Key informant interviews Case Studies Capture experiences Discuss success strategies Report Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 identifying successful strategies used by communities to mitigate the negative effects of precarious employment; and describing the experience of rural workers engaged in precarious employment. I’ll share with you where I am now in the context of my analysis – I’m capturing PE as a systemic problem here you can see…

Precarious employment in rural Ontario Legend Causation Impact Stock _______ Relation to - - - - - - Drain on Decreased voting/ political engagement Social Trust Marginalized employees: mostly women, new citizens Social Isolation Reduced training opportunities Social tax base Increased entrepreneurial endeavours Reduction of manufacturing jobs Precarious employment in rural Ontario Low political commitment to change Reduced agency Low labour market diversity Employer first mentality No agreed upon definition Unstable income Poverty No benefits: medical, dental, vision, pension, childcare Inability to move forward in life Discontent life Mental health triggers Community connected-ness Reduced physical health Manifestation of mental health issues

References Benach, J. and C. Muntaner. 2007. Precarious employment and health: developing a research agenda. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 61(4): 276–277. Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation. (2015). State of Rural Canada Report. Editors: Markey, Breen, Lauzon, Gibson, Ryser, Mealy. Retrieved from http://sorc.crrf.ca. Ferrie, J. E. 2001. Is job insecurity harmful to health? Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 94(2): 71-76. McLaren, D. Final Report of the Precarious Work Group. Peace and Justice Grey Bruce. Jan 2015. Lewchuk, W. ed. 2015. The Precarity Penalty: The impact of employment precarity on individuals, household and communities - and what to do about it. Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO), McMaster University, United Way Toronto. Noack, A. M. and F. Vosko. 2011. Precarious Jobs In Ontario: Mapping Dimensions Of Labour Market Insecurity By Workers’ Social Location And Context Vulnerable Workers And Precarious Work. Commissioned by the Law Commission of Ontario. Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, 2008. Tiessen, K. Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives, Seismic Shift: ‘Ontario’s Changing Labour Market’, Mar 2014.